Amazon Labor Federation President Chris Smalls speaks at a rally in New York on September 5. The company fired Smalls from its Staten Island warehouse after he helped lead a protest during pandemic period.
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Amazon Labor Federation President Chris Smalls speaks at a rally in New York on Sept. 5. The company fired Smalls from its Staten Island warehouse after he helped lead a protest during a time pandemic period.
Image of Michael M. Santiago/Getty
Amazon should recognize its first consolidated warehouse in the US, a federal labor official has ruled, rejecting the company’s offer to shed light on a ground-breaking union victory on Staten Island. .
On Wednesday, the National Labor Relations Board’s Area 28 regional director, Cornele Overstreet, denied Amazon’s allegation that labor council officials and union organizers influenced not true to the union vote. In the spring, the Amazon Labor Federation emerges get the right to represent about 8,000 workers at the giant warehouse in New York.
Wednesday’s decision requires Amazon to begin negotiations “in good faith” with the union. However, the company is expected to appeal the ruling before a full panel of labor councils in Washington, DC, which it can request by January 25. Labor experts said members of the company councils will likely side with their regional colleagues to confirm the union’s victory. The case can be taken to court.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said: “I think that will take a long time to work. said at a conference in Septembersaid there were “worrying irregularities” in the vote.
At stake is the future of Labor organization at Amazonwhere unions are struggling to gain a foothold as the company’s network of warehouses expands, making it the United States’ second-largest private employer after Walmart.
Now, workers at another Amazon warehouse in Shakopee, Minn., is pushing for an election about whether to join the Amazon Labor Union, an organization run by current and former Amazon workers. And about 400 workers at a warehouse near Albany, NY, voted 406-206 against consolidation in October.
Early last year, Amazon workers at the second and smaller warehouse, Staten Island Vote from 618 to 380 against joining ALU. And consolidation efforts at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama have so far been unsuccessful.
On Staten Island, the ALU won the first union election with over 500 votes in 2022. Soon after, Amazon challenge results.
The company alleges that union organizers coerced and misled warehouse workers, and that Brooklyn-based labor officials overseeing the election acted in favor of the union. In September, the attorney for the NLRB, who has chaired hearings for weeks on the case, recommended that Amazon’s objections rejected in its entirety.
Editor’s Note: Amazon is one of NPR’s recent financial backers.
