Bessemer , Alabama warehouse workers will get a second dead reckoning at a union election , the National Labor Relations Board has decided . It found that Amazon shot itself in the foot by intervene with the election , even beyond its considerable purchase to influence workers .
This fountain , after Amazon warehouse workers voted 1,798 to 738 against unionise under the Retail , Wholesale , and Department Store Union ( RWDSU ) , the RWDSU filed23 objectionsalleging that Amazon improperly interfere in the election . In August , an NLRB auditory sense officeragreedthat Amazon had violated labor law , mainly due to theinfamous mailbox , ostensibly to facilitate mail - in balloting . NLRB Regional Director Lisa Henderson uphold that ruling today .
Given its sizeable vantage — huge resources and worker ’ non - stop , undivided attending — Amazon ’s epic fumble is pretty mind - blowing . The NLRBspecifically toldAmazon not to install things like “ pass - through boxes ” that obviously belonged to the employer . And yet , Amazon then delegated the USPS to install a letter box in the parking lot , in view of security cameras , and rank a suggestive collapsible shelter around it and hung a banner reading “ SPEAK FOR YOURSELF ! MAIL YOUR BALLOT HERE . ” electronic mail later on revealed that Amazon directed the USPS to alter the boxful to its liking .
Photo: Jay Reeves (AP)
The RWDSU had object that the tent and box looked an awful mickle like an employer - run polling location , give the impression that Amazon could verify the election outcome and give chase voters ’ indistinguishability , and that the in - collapsible shelter messaging qualified as electioneering . The NLRB agreed .
The unionalso allegedthat Amazon threatened to lay off 75 percent of its workforce and close down its storage warehouse if workers unionized . An Amazon interpreter denied this in an email to Gizmodo in April , and the union retreat that objection . But that hypothetical scourge could serve excuse the dramatic switching in support from the union ’s initial title that 3,000 workers — more than one-half of the 5,800 working at Bessemer — ab initio signed cards in favour of holding an election .
Amazon also brought in dear union - bustingconsultants , ran captive audience meeting , and reportedly photograph workers ’ badges if they spoke up . proletarian received a barrage of texts , emails , and mailers with anti - union messaging . They spent their day in overheated warehouses surrounded by flyers insinuating that they ’d turn a loss pay if they unionized and , if they watched Twitch , possibly saw the advert featuring fellow workers . All of that ’s sound .
In a assertion apportion with Gizmodo , Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel order that “ [ i]t ’s dissatisfactory that the NLRB has now decided that those vote should n’t count . ” Nantel generally restate Amazon ’s anti - Federal position but did not address the NLRB ’s specific determination that the caller denied worker a fairish election .
The election date has yet to be herald . take the total opinion , with response to Amazon ’s exculpation , here :
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