A surprise for no one… Amazon has decided to appeal following the creation of a union in one of its New York warehouses. The firm mentions in particular obstructions before and during the votes.
Many interferences with votes, according to Amazon
On April 1, 2022, employees at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, one of the boroughs of New York City, voted to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), a group created by current and former company employees demanding higher wages and job security. This is the very first union formed by Amazon employees in the United States and inevitably… This does not really please the e-commerce giant.
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According to wall street journal, the latter is preparing to lodge an appeal with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent agency of the US government responsible for conducting union elections and investigating illegal practices in the world of work. According to Amazon, the ALU threatened warehouse workers to force them to join them, in addition to interfering with people queuing to vote and ” threatening immigrants with losing their benefits if they did not vote “.
The firm also accuses the NLRB of having organized the voting periods in such a way that many employees do not end up voting; only 55% of warehouse workers voted. According to Amazon, the government agency’s handling of the Bryson case also sparked fire and caused warehouse workers to vote to form a union. Gerald Bryson was a JFK8 warehouse worker and member of ALU, who was fired in 2020 after participating in a protest related to working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company said Bryson violated its harassment and language policy against another employee during the protest. However, the NLRB claimed in a complaint that Amazon unfairly fired the employee in retaliation for protesting.
Working conditions in Amazon warehouses are notorious for being harsh. Photography: Adrian Sulyok / Unsplash
Amazon is not very fond of unions
Eric Milner, a lawyer representing the ALU, assures that Amazon’s allegations are false: ” To say that Amazon Union Union was threatening employees is truly absurd. The Union Syndicale d’Amazon is the employees of Amazon “, did he declare.
Upstream, this Thursday, April 7, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), another American union, filed an appeal following the second vote by employees of an Amazon warehouse located in Bessemer, Alabama to unionize. For the second time in less than a year, the employees decided not to form a union, but suspicions around possible interference from Amazon during the two votes remain.
During the first vote, which took place in April 2021, the NLRB thus advocated a second vote after observing questionable actions by the company to distort the results. If the second vote has just ended with a similar end, the RWDSU continues to believe that wrongdoings have once again been committed.
For its part, Amazon said it was disappointed with the results at the New York warehouse, and assures that it prefers to communicate directly with its employees than through a union, a way of doing things that it considers better for its employees. . The company also touts its starting salary, which it says averages $18 an hour, as well as the perks it offers like healthcare options and paid tuition. .
The creation of the union is already being emulated across the Atlantic
Nevertheless, working conditions in Amazon warehouses have come under fire for several years. The firm’s employees, for example, have a much greater risk of injury than when working for other companies. The e-commerce giant also analyzes the performance of its employees very strictly using algorithms; many of them said they skipped breaks or didn’t go to the bathroom in order to meet their quotas. In August 2021, Jeff Bezos admitted that Amazon needed to do more for the well-being of its employees.
The company now has until April 22 to file its appeal with the NLRB, but it has little chance of it being accepted. John Logan, a professor of labor law at San Francisco State University, explained to Reuters that the NLRB generally treats alleged employer violations more seriously than alleged union wrongdoing.
The creation of the union in New York is already being emulated: Chris Smalls, former JFK8 employee and president of the ALU, said this week that his group spoke with employees of more than 50 Amazon warehouses across the United States wanting to unionize.