An independent union at Amazon's Staten Island distribution hub won a major win before a federal labor regulator on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
The labor agency upheld the result and rejected all of Amazon's objections, CNBC reports.
Pro-union protestors gather for a rally near the home of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Fifth Avenue on September 05, 2022 in New York City.
About 8,300 employees at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island voted in April 2022 to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), making it the company's first unionized site in the US. Amazon fought to invalidate the election results, claiming the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office in charge of the vote meddled in the unionization process. In addition, Amazon said that the ALU threatened its employees to vote for them. A federal labor official had previously ruled that all of Amazon's objections should be rejected. On Wednesday, Jan. 11, Cornele Overstreet, head of the NLRB's Phoenix office, filed a statement saying he agreed with that decision. After an election and the results are confirmed, an employer must begin bargaining in good faith with the winning union under US labor law. Delays are possible because the employer may want to postpone signing a first contract and because the parties need time to negotiate the finer points of the agreement. Bloomberg Law found that the median time for an employer and newly unionized workers to reach a deal through collective bargaining was 465 days. When employees at JFK8 chose to join the union, the ALU was ecstatic but has since failed to repeat the same level of success elsewhere. Earlier in May 2022, workers at a neighboring plant on Staten Island voted against unionization, and last October, the ALU lost a union ballot at a warehouse in Albany.Failure to Overturn
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Christian Smalls, President of the ALU, speaks as Pro-union protestors gather for a rally near the home of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Fifth Avenue on September 05, 2022 in New York City.
Intention to Appeal
Apparently, Amazon has the option of appealing the decision to the NLRB's board in Washington.
Spokesperson Kelly Nantel for Amazon stated in a statement that the corporation would be contesting the verdict.
The company believes that the voting procedure was "not fair, legitimate, or representative of the majority" of what their team wants, as Nantel put it.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said at the New York Times' DealBook Summit at the end of 2022 that the union drive had a lot of anomalies and that the legal process is "far from over."
For his part, Jassy is certain that the NLRB will eventually resolve the matter. "It's probably unlikely the NLRB is going to rule against itself, and that has a real chance to end up in federal court," he added.
In a tweet, ALU interim president Chris Smalls claimed that the union beat Amazon fairly and played by the rules. He urged Jassy to "come to the table" to negotiate a deal.
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