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The American Agency in charge of labor law (NLRB) validated on Wednesday January 11 the vote which led to the creation, at the beginning of 2022, of the first union in one of Amazon’s warehouses in the United States, a vote against which the company filed objections.
In a press release, the Agency rejected the arguments put forward by the online sales giant, thus following the recommendations issued by one of its advisers in early September. The NLRB now insists on the obligation to ” the employer to negotiate in good faith and request a review of the decision before the end of January.
Employees of the JFK8 site, located in the Staten Island district of New York, voted in the majority at the end of March to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organization. However, the company quickly objected, saying in particular that the union had intimidated the employees to encourage them to vote “yes”. Amazon also claimed that the local NLRB office had promoted theALU and facilitated his victory.
« This is a great moment for the labor movement “, enthused on Twitter the vice president of ALU, Derrick Palmer, “ we will continue to fight for better contracts for all workers at Amazon everywhere ».
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Admissible objections
« We knew there was little chance that the NLRB would go against its own advice and intend to appeal this decision. We have said this from the start, we do not believe that the electoral process was fair, legitimate or representative of what the majority of our teams want. Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel told AFP.
The file had been relocated to the office of the NLRB in Phoenix, Arizona (southwest), where an official had deemed that certain objections could be admissible and ordered a hearing.
For an election conducted in another Amazon warehouse in Alabama (south) in the spring of 2021, which ended in a “no” on the arrival of a union, the agency had ordered the organization of a new vote considering that the company had broken the rules. Many ballots having been disputed during a second ballot organized in February and March of this year, the result has still not been certified.
(with AFP)