The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) has filed a formal objection to the outcome of a union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, claiming that the e-commerce business threatened to lay off workers. The employees voted against a union vote on April 9, but the RWDSU argues that the results should be set aside because Amazon ” created an atmosphere of confusion, coercion and / or fear of retaliation and thus the freedom of interfered with the employees’ choice. “The union said in a news release.
“Amazon has left no stone unturned in its efforts to ignite its own employees,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of RWDSU, said in a statement Monday. “We will not allow Amazon’s lies, fraud and illegal activities to be undisputed. Therefore, we are formally filing complaints against all the serious and blatantly illegal actions that Amazon took during the union’s vote today.”
Amazon said in a statement that it is looking forward to the next steps in the legal process. “The fact is that less than 16% of employees at BHM1 voted to join a trade union,” the statement said. “Instead of accepting the choice of these employees, the union seems determined to misrepresent the facts in order to advance its own agenda.”
Workers voted by post in February and March whether they wanted to join the RWDSU. Of the approximately 5,800 workers in the Bessemer warehouse, 3,041 voted in the election, with 1,798 workers voting against and 738 according to the NLRB. Known as BHM1, Bessmer is only the second U.S. Amazon facility to hold a union vote. If approved, the BHM1 union would have been the largest group to win a single NLRB election in 1991.
The RWSDU has a list of 23 objections it has lodged with the NLRB. The union alleges, among other things, that Amazon threatened employees that the Bessemer warehouse would close if they joined a union, and that the company sent an email warning it that it would lay off workers if there were any union voted.
It is also alleged that Amazon installed a ballot box in the parking lot of the warehouse, which created the appearance that the company, rather than the NLRB, controlled the election and that it monitored the collection box via security cameras. An Amazon spokesman said in a statement that The edge that the RWDSU allegations about the collection box are inaccurate. “We said from the beginning that we want all employees to vote, and we have suggested many different options to try to make it easy. “The RWDSU fought against them every time and demanded an e-mail election, which according to the NLRB’s data would reduce the turnout,” the spokesperson said. “This mailbox – to which only the USPS had access – was a simple, secure and completely optional way to get employees to vote, no more and no less.”
The mailbox was a major doubt during the vote. According to the RWDSU, Amazon put pressure on workers to bring their ballots to work and put them in the subject box rather than send them by ballot and remove workers who support the union from mandatory in-prison training sessions. Under also reported that Amazon had sent instructions to employees to vote “no” and told them to use the controversial mailbox.
The union wants to investigate what is according to Amazon’s behavior that spoiled the election.