Business

Amazon workers reject union bid at warehouse in New York

Union has struggled to expand influence beyond one warehouse in New York City so far

Amazon employees rejected joining a union at a facility in upstate New York. Photograph: DeSean McClinton-Holland/The New York Times

Tue Oct 18 2022 - 17:58

Amazon workers at a warehouse near Albany, New York, voted against joining an upstart trade union – the group’s second defeat in a row.

The election in the upstate town of Schodack wasn’t close. Of the approximately 650 ballots cast, 206 workers voted yes and 406 voted no to unionise under the banner of the Amazon Labour Union (ALU), which earlier this year won a historic election at a much larger Amazon facility in Staten Island. There were 31 contested ballots, not enough to change the outcome.

The loss is a setback for the ALU, which has struggled to expand its influence beyond New York City and even hang on to its gains there. The ALU lost a vote at a second Staten Island facility in May and is now battling Amazon over the results of the election it did win.

The push at the Schodack warehouse, called ALB1, was led by Heather Goodall, who started working at the facility in February. She and her colleagues have said they wanted higher wages, more paid time off and safer working conditions – among other demands.

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Labour unrest has roiled various US companies in the past couple of years. Last week, Apple workers at a store in Oklahoma City voted to unionise, marking the second location to do so. A union victory at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, has since led to hundreds of successful votes around the country.

Last week the US National Labour Relations Board said workers at an Amazon warehouse in Southern California had filed paperwork to hold a vote on whether join the ALU. Amazon said it doubted organisers there had collected sufficient signatures to call an election.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, meanwhile, is seeking to represent workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Federal officials determined that Amazon’s conduct during a vote there last year made a fair election impossible, and a rerun election remains too close to call. Other unions have also ramped up their efforts in recent years to organise workers at Amazon, the second largest private employer in the US behind Walmart.

In the UK, hundreds of Amazon workers at a logistics hub near Coventry will vote Wednesday whether to strike. The walkout, if it goes ahead, would probably happen on Black Friday. Staff at several UK locations have previously staged informal work stoppages and walkouts to protest a 35-pence-an-hour wage increase, but a strike in Coventry would mark the first time Amazon workers have formally walked off the job. The workers there are backed by the GMB Union. – Bloomberg

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