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The election will allow about 6,000 employees at the Bessemer, Alabama plant to vote by mail starting Feb. 8, according to a National Labor Relations Board decision released Friday.
The union push comes at a time when working conditions in Amazon’s warehouses have come under scrutiny during the pandemic. The company has hired hundreds of thousands of additional workers around the world to meet increased demand. A number of warehouse workers have expressed safety concerns since the start of the pandemic.
While some Amazon workers are unionized in Europe, the company has so far pushed back unions in the United States. A union election was held in a warehouse in Delaware in 2014, but workers largely rejected the effort.
Potential unionization at Bessemer took months. Workers at the facility first filed a notice in November with the NLRB about holding an election.
“Having a union at Amazon would give us the right to collectively negotiate our working conditions, including things like safety standards, training, breaks, pay, benefits and other important issues that would improve our workplace, ”reads a website in support of Amazon Bessemer unionizing workers.
Amazon did not immediately respond to CNN Business’s request for comment.
In a series of hearings in late December with the NLRB, Amazon and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores Union (RWDSU) agreed on who should vote. The list includes a range of full-time, part-time and seasonal associates.
The NLRB wrote that it believes conducting the election by mail, as opposed to in person as Amazon preferred, is “the safest and most appropriate method” given “the extraordinary circumstances presented by the Covid pandemic. 19. “
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