- About 6,000 Amazon workers in Alabama will vote on the formation of a union, which would be the e-commerce giant’s first union in its history, according to a petition filed.
- Workers will receive their votes on Feb. 8 to vote in the by-election on the wishes of Amazon, which campaigned for a personal election.
- Amazon is strongly opposed to its workers arranging a union, and the company has even hired detectives from the Pinkerton espionage agency to monitor the efforts.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
About 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama will vote on forming the first union in the e-commerce giant’s history, according to a new petition filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The petition, filed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, asks to represent the approximately 6,000 employees who work at Amazon’s plant in Bessemer, Alabama. Workers, whether they want to be represented by the union or not, will receive their ballots on 8 February. Voters must return their ballots by March 29. The count will be held on a video conferencing platform and starts on March 30th.
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Eligibility applies to all types of positions, such as employees of medical leaders and temporary warehouses, but excludes all truck drivers, professional employees and engineers, as well as others. Everyone who has worked at least four hours a week for the past 13 weeks is entitled to vote.
According to the petition, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union asked to represent about 1,500 employees in November until Amazon asked the pool to expand and cover 6,000 employees.
Amazon spokeswoman Heather Knox said in a statement to Insider that the company “works hard to support our teams and more than 90% of employees on our Bessemer website say they see Amazon as a great place to work for them. friends would recommend.Believe that the RDWSU represents the majority of our employees’ views.Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best work available anywhere we rent, and we encourage everyone to enjoy our total compensation package, health benefits and compare workplace environments with any other company with similar work. “
Representatives of the BAmazon Union did not immediately respond to insider requests for comment.
—BAmazonUnion (@BAmazonUnion) 15 January 2021
The employees will vote by mail, which Amazon fought against, calling for a personal vote in a parking lot adjacent to the facility. Amazon also wanted to use the company’s Remote Assistant and other equipment owned by the company to conduct the election, which the bidder said could cause a conflict of interest.
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The petition is the beginning of a great labor struggle. As the Washington Post notes, union voting usually involves dozens or hundreds of workers – it involves nearly 6,000.
Amazon has historically been a strong opponent of the workers’ union. The firm listed a position for an analyst in 2020, but quickly removed it, which will monitor the employee’s efforts to organize.
A September motherboard report found that Amazon used a tool to monitor dozens of private and public social media groups to find drivers arranging strikes or protests. And in November, reports surfaced that Amazon had hired detectives from the infamous Pinkerton espionage agency to monitor the European Labor union’s organizing efforts.