Amazon Warehouse Workers in Alabama to Hold Second Union Vote

Voters will have almost two months to submit their ballots, with the vote count scheduled to start March 28. While Amazon won the first vote by a large margin, the labor board’s decision sets up another battle between Amazon and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which is leading the campaign to organize workers in Bessemer.

An Amazon spokeswoman said employees have always had the choice of whether to join a union. “They overwhelmingly chose not to join the RWDSU last year,” she said, adding that Amazon is looking forward to the vote.

A spokeswoman for the RWDSU said worker voices “can and must be heard fairly, unencumbered by Amazon’s limitless power to control what must be a fair and free election, and we will continue to hold them accountable for their actions.”

The two sides have been making their case to workers for more than a year. The union has campaigned almost daily in Bessemer during that time. Organizers have tried to connect with workers by using family ties and themes from the Black Lives Matter movement. Many of the workers at the Bessemer facility are Black.

Amazon, meanwhile, held regular meetings inside the facility to discourage workers from voting for unionization. In the months since the first election, the company has raised its pay nationally—now averaging more than $18 an hour—and introduced new perks such as paid college tuition for workers.

As the sides prepare for a second vote, one of the most significant challenges the union faces is the possibility that many people now employed at the facility may not be there when the vote is held. With Amazon’s turnover exceeding 100% across many of its facilities, it will be more difficult for the RWDSU to gain and keep support from employees, labor researchers have said.

In December, Amazon and the NLRB reached an agreement to make organizing easier for workers. Under the agreement, Amazon is notifying past and current warehouse staff of their rights to organize in its buildings via email and other internal communications, and the NLRB also can more quickly hold Amazon accountable should it violate the terms of the agreement.

While the deal will allow workers to gather and advocate for unionization from within Amazon facilities, union organizers who don’t work for the company still won’t be allowed to enter. The company can still use meetings and various means of communicating to workers to push back on unionization efforts, said Rebecca Givan, a labor-studies professor at Rutgers University.

“With sufficient resources, the odds are with them,” Ms. Givan said of Amazon.

The number of eligible voters hasn’t been made public. In the previous election, the facility housed roughly 6,000 eligible workers.

In November, a regional NLRB director ruled that Amazon’s installation of a ballot-collection box outside its Bessemer facility during the first vote could have made employees believe Amazon played a role in collecting and counting ballots. Amazon wasn’t found to have accessed any ballots submitted through the mailbox, and the company has said it set up the mailbox for the convenience of voters. It has maintained it didn’t violate the law.

Roughly 71% of workers who cast ballots in the first election voted against joining the RWDSU. While union supporters said they have sought better work standards and benefits at the company, many voters didn’t feel a union would substantially improve their situations, according to interviews.

The new battle is starting more than a year after organizers started their first campaign in the working-class town outside of Birmingham. Union organizers gained the support from celebrities and President Biden, with the election becoming a rallying cry for labor activists throughout the country. The failed campaign was a blow to union supporters hoping to bring the first union to Amazon in the U.S., though the election helped spur another union push in New York City, where workers are organizing in Staten Island.

Write to Sebastian Herrera at [email protected]