Amazon files lawsuit against the formation of its first union

Amazon has filed a complaint against the formation of the first union by the workers of a warehouse of the technological giant in the New York district of Staten Island, local media reported this Saturday.

According to the company, union leaders pressured workers to vote in favor of forming a unionan argument that the lawyer of the so-called Amazon Labor Union (ALU), Eric Milner, described as “absurd”, according to the CBS channel.

On April 1, employees of Amazon’s JFK8 plant in New York won a fight against the technology giant and after months of struggle managed to create the company’s first union in the United States, which has tried by all means to frustrate any initiative of union organization.

In total, 2,654 staff members were in favor of organizing, compared to 2,131 who were against in the vote. “Amazon has chosen to ignore this and engaging in delaying tactics to avoid the inevitable: sit down at the negotiating table and negotiate a contract,” Milner said.

Amazon is the second largest employer in the United States, behind only the Walmart supermarket chain, and since the start of the pandemic it has triggered both its activity and its profits and has hired tens of thousands of new workers, reports Efe.

The outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 spurred the spirits of many Amazon workers and other large companies in the country, such as the Starbucks coffee chain, in the United States, who denounced that their employers did not take the necessary measures to protect them from covid-19.

The Amazon Labor Union was founded by union leader Christian Smalls after being fired in March 2020 for organizing a strike to denounce the lack of protection for workers after the covid-19 outbreak, at a time when he held a supervisory position at the distribution center.

Nevertheless, the company claimed that he had been expelled for skipping security protocols by showing up at the facility despite being asked to self-quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus.

The company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos invested great effort and money in preventing its workers from uniting with one voice to negotiate a collective agreement, which will be the next step if the union is finally officially formed.

During years, its directors had succeeded in frustrating any attempt through pressure, harassment and information campaigns against the labor movement.

In the case of Staten Island, the facilities had been wallpapered with posters that read “Vote No”, but the company also launched a web page to the same effect.