A union formation in the Amazon warehouse: Suspense continues

Bad start in Alabama, still possible in New York: Counting of votes on unionization at two U.S. Amazon warehouses began Thursday, but final results are not yet known.

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This is the first time in the United States that an e-commerce company has been founded in 1994, having won a “yes” on one of two logistics platforms.

On Staten Island, a suburb of New York City where JFK8 warehouse workers cast their ballots, the “yes” vote was 1,518 and the “no” vote was 1,154. The count will close tomorrow, an official said.

The fact that a poll has taken place is “already historically significant”, with Christian Smalls, head of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), a small group of current and former Amazon employees devoting several months to collecting at least 30% of signatures. Warehouse staff to organize the poll.

He quickly left the building between two rounds of voting, saying “yes” was “not surprising” to be in the lead so far.

In Bessemer (Alabama), on the other hand, the National Association of Distributors, which the workers wanted to join, caused a second controversial failure a year ago. Over the state.

On Thursday evening, “No” took the lead with 993 votes, against which there were 875 “yes” but 416 “controversial” ballots, which will determine the outcome. In the coming weeks, an inquiry will have to decide whether or not to open these bulletins and take them into account. Then there may be other legal solutions.

In all, 2,284 out of 6,153 eligible employees voted.

This second poll was commissioned by the United States Labor Rights Agency (NLRB), which found that Amazon violated the rules during its first attempt at Bessemer last year.

The RWDSU union actually accused the group of “intimidation and interference” and ruled that the NLRB acceptable several objections.

Amazon, one of the largest employers in the United States, is a multinational corporation with a net worth of over $ 30 billion by 2021, and has so far been able to thwart efforts to mobilize workers in the country.

In Bessemer, as in Staten Island, workers were called to several mandatory meetings before the ballot to present the evils of a union.

Officially, the company respects workers’ rights to unionize, but wants a direct relationship with its employees.

He did not immediately respond to AFP’s request.