Amazon employees in a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, voted against uniting the workforce of about 5,800 people.
The National Labor Relations Council (NLRB) collected more than 1,700 votes on the measure, more than half of the 3,215 ballots cast by employees at the BHM1 fulfillment center. About 700 votes counted voted in favor of the union, and about 500 of the total ballots were disputed, mostly by Amazon.
Workers voted by mail in February and March whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), a possibility that Amazon has battled with anti-union meetings and other aggressive measures. BHM1 is only the second U.S. Amazon agency to hold a union vote, following a much smaller group of warehouse technicians in Delaware. If workers had approved the union, it would have become the largest group to have a single NLRB election in 1991.
The RWDSU says it will appeal against the election and ask a hearing whether the election results should be set aside. “We will not allow Amazon’s lies, deception and illegal activities to go unchallenged. Therefore, we are formally filing complaints against all the serious and blatantly illegal actions taken by Amazon during the union’s vote,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of RWDSU, said in a statement on Friday. “We demand a comprehensive investigation into Amazon’s behavior to spoil this election.”
Amazon has long resisted union and is conducting an aggressive campaign in Bessemer. The company brought in expensive anti-union consultants and held so-called meetings for ‘captivity’, which are compulsory lectures in the workplace where trade unions are presented in a negative light. Amazon has offered a multiple anti-union advertising campaign, including Facebook ads, warehouse banners, signs during breaks and toilets, mail dispatchers and a constant barrage of text messages to workers. Supervisors regularly took workers aside to hold one-on-one meetings that encouraged workers to vote ‘no’.
This tactic is generally legal under U.S. labor law, which significantly benefits employers. While Amazon enjoyed unrestricted access to employees at the Living Center, organizers were not allowed in and instead had to campaign in the parking lot and recruit employees as they departed. During the campaign, Amazon caused the province to change the timing for a traffic light leaving the warehouse parking lot, a measure the company said was taken to reduce congestion, but according to organizers, made their work harder.
One possible tactic the union could challenge is Amazon’s pressure to have a mailbox installed on the warehouse. According to documents obtained by the union through a record request, Amazon requested that the mailbox be installed while the voting process begins. The NLRB rejected Amazon’s request to keep a personal vote at the warehouse, saying that in addition to the COVID-19 risk, it gives the impression that the company has a role in the election. Amazon said the mailbox was intended to facilitate the vote, but the union said it had the potential to intimidate workers, and that the order to get workers to vote for it constituted improper voting.
Amazon employees outside BHM1 carried out more informal activism, including during the coronavirus pandemic, when employees claimed that Amazon did not disclose COVID-19 cases and provided adequate safeguards. In complaints obtained through newspapers, the NLRB found that Amazon had illegally retaliated against some of these workers. The NLRB also found that Amazon had acted illegally to fire two workers who pushed it to address its climate impact.
Update 11:30 ET: Number of votes updated and added statement from RWDSU.