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- About 6,000 Amazon workers in Alabama will vote to form a union, which would be the e-commerce giant’s first union in its history, according to a filed petition.
- Workers will receive their ballots on February 8 to vote in the postal election on the wishes of Amazon, which was pushing for an in-person election.
- Amazon has strongly objected to its workers organizing a union, with the company even hiring detectives from the Pinkerton spy agency to monitor the efforts.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
About 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama will vote to form the first union in the e-commerce giant’s history, according to a new petition filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The petition, filed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores Union, asks to represent the approximately 6,000 employees who work at Amazon’s facilities in Bessemer, Alabama. Workers, whether or not they wish to be represented by the union, will receive their ballot on February 8. Voters must return their ballot before March 29. The count will be done on a videoconference platform and will begin on March 30.
Read more: More than 600 Amazon warehouse workers in 148 facilities could have gotten COVID-19, but the total number is difficult to determine because Amazon has not informed its warehouse workers of all cases, according to multiple employees
Eligibility extends to all kinds of positions, such as senior associate and temporary warehouse associate, but excludes all truck drivers, professional employees and engineers, and others. Anyone who has worked an average of at least four hours per week over the past 13 weeks is eligible to vote.
According to the petition, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores Union asked in November to represent around 1,500 employees until Amazon calls for this pool to expand to cover 6,000 employees. .
In a statement to Insider, Amazon spokesperson Heather Knox said the company strives to support our teams and over 90% of associates on our Bessemer site say they would recommend Amazon as a good place. work to their friends. We do not. believe that the RDWSU represents the majority of the opinions of our employees. Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available wherever we hire, and we encourage anyone to compare our total compensation, health benefits, and work environment to any other company with similar jobs. “
Representatives for Union BAmazon did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
—BAmazonUnion (@BAmazonUnion) January 15, 2021
Employees will vote by mail, which Amazon fought against, instead pushing for an in-person vote held in a parking lot adjacent to the facility, the petition noted. Amazon was also keen to use the company’s remote assistant and other company-owned equipment to organize the election, which the petitioner claims could lead to a conflict of interest.
Read more: Leaked memo shows Amazon warns employees to ‘be careful’ about their safety as far-right threats to blow up data centers emerge after Talking ban
The petition marks the start of a major union battle. As the Washington Post notes, the union vote typically involves dozens or hundreds of workers – that’s nearly 6,000.
Amazon has always been a staunch opponent of organizing its workers. The company listed, but quickly deleted, a job posting in 2020 for an analyst who would monitor employees’ efforts to organize.
A September Motherboard report found that Amazon had used a tool to monitor dozens of private and public social media groups to find drivers who were organizing strikes or protests. And in November, reports revealed that Amazon had hired detectives with the infamous Pinkerton spy agency to monitor European workers’ unionization efforts.
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