Amazon denied allegations that the employees were intimidated into voting whether they wanted to create the first union in a warehouse in Alabama.
The overwhelming decision by workers in Bessemer, a suburb north of Birmingham, to refute the organized representation is seen as a blow to the American labor movement. Union leaders claimed that “serious and blatantly illegal” actions by Amazon took place during the poll.
In a statement posted on its website, Amazon said that the claim of officials of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Association (RWDSU) has no merit.
“It’s easy to predict that the union will say that Amazon won this election because we intimidated our employees, but that’s not true,” he said.
‘Our employees have heard far more anti-Amazon messages from the union, policymakers and media than they have heard from us. And Amazon did not win – our employees made the choice to vote against a union. ‘
Nevertheless, the company, whose owner Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, with an estimated fortune of $ 196 billion, thanked the workers at the warehouse, known as BHM1, for their verdict.
“There has been a lot of noise over the last few months and we are glad that your voices have finally been heard,” he said. “In the end, less than 16% of employees at BHM1 voted to join the RWDSU union.”
Among Amazon’s allegations was that it forced workers to attend anti-union meetings, bombarded them with text messages and papered the walls of warehouses’ bathrooms with union posters.
Furthermore, there was a dispute over the erection of a mailbox outside the warehouse that encouraged Amazon to use workers for their votes, raising the suspicion that the company wanted to influence the delivery and counting of the ballot papers. The Washington Post revealed that the U.S. Postal Service installed the mailbox at Amazon’s request in February, at the beginning of the seven-week ballot period.
“We will not leave Amazon’s lies, fraud and illegal activities undisputed. Therefore, we are formally filing complaints against all the serious and blatantly illegal actions taken by Amazon during the union vote,” said RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum. said in a statement.
“Amazon knew full well that their workers would support the union unless they did everything they could, even illegal activities.”
The number of ballots challenged by the union, 505, is not enough to reverse the result.
Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator from Vermont who campaigned with workers, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the vote, in which 1,798 opposed and 738 were in favor of about 6,000 eligible employees.
“They were against a company that was willing to spend a lot of money and use every kind of tactic to defeat them,” Sanders said. said in a tweet, supports the union’s call to investigate.
‘The willingness of Amazon workers in Bessemer to tackle the richest man in the world and a powerful company in an anti-union state is an inspiration. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and fight back, and they should be applauded. ”
Sanders was a driving force in convincing Amazon to raise its minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. At the time, he thanked Bezos and said he hoped it would be a springboard for other big companies to do the same.
But negotiations to raise the national minimum hourly wage to $ 15 have stalled. Senate Democrats were forced to abandon the proposal in order to get enough votes to pass Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 ton Covid recovery package.
Amazon insists it is committed to improving the pay and conditions for its employees and those outside the company, and is willing to meet Sanders and other campaigners.
“We welcome the opportunity to sit down and share ideas with policymakers who want to pass laws to ensure all U.S. workers are guaranteed at least $ 15 an hour, first-day health care and other strong benefits,” the statement said.
“We believe we can work better together instead of against each other to enforce the important laws, and we hope that will happen in the coming months and years.”