Amazon loses bid to overturn union election win in Staten Island warehouse

Amazon’s attempt to overturn the Amazon Labour Union’s election result at a Staten Island warehouse has been declined by a US labour board official. 

Amazon had made an appeal to overturn the election results at the JFK8 fulfillment center after the Amazon Labour Union won  2,654 yes votes to 2,131 no votes. National Labor Relations Board spokesperson Kayla Blado told Bloomberg in an email that the company had not “met its burden” to prove that the ALU, the government or any other party had engaged in “objectionable conduct” that could have affected the outcome of the election. 

Also Read: Amazon workers in Albany file to unionize

Amazon’s spokesperson Kelly Nantel said that the company was reviewing the decision. They told Bloomberg that Amazon disagreed with the decision and intended to appeal, adding, “As we showed throughout the hearing with dozens of witnesses and hundreds of pages of documents, both the NLRB and the ALU improperly influenced the outcome of the election and we don’t believe it represents what the majority of our team wants.”

Amazon has managed to prevent any sort of unionization for last 28 years. 

The e-commerce behemoth has until September 16 to appeal the official’s decision. Upon appeal, Amazon’s objections will be heard by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board. However, should the company fail to get the regional director to agree with them, it will be legally required to enter into negotiations with the union over pay and working conditions at the JFK8 fulfillment center.

Also Read: Amazon accuses FTC of ‘unduly burdensome’ investigation

In the past, companies have refused to enter into negotiations leading to length litigation. However, the NLRB does not have the resources to compel companies to pay out punitive damages for their refusal.

Many companies across the US have been seeing an uptick in unionisation attempts. So far, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and Chipotle employees have successfully unionised in different franchises. Lately, even employees at tech companies have begun attempting to unionise.