Amazon believes that the small group of trade unionists, who won a historic vote in New York last week, has “threatened” the employees of his warehouse to force them to vote in favor of creating a union.
Le Monde and AFP
False departure for the first American Union of Amazon. The Seattle company disputes the vote that took place in a New York warehouse on April 1st, and up to Friday, April 8, to submit its objections to the vote of a Warehouse in New York, and April 22 to present its evidence.
In total, 8,325 JFK8 warehouse workers, located in the district of Sten Island, were on the list of voters. Called to vote in person from March 25 to 30 to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), 4,852 employees slipped a newsletter into the ballot box. The yes won 2,654 votes to 2 131.
According to official documents filed Thursday with the Federal Labor Law Agency (NLRB), Amazon asked for more time to submit voting objections. The online commerce giant accuses aluminum activists to have “intimidated” employees.
“It’s absurd”
In his appeal, Amazon intends to develop several objections. The company considers that ALU has “threatened employees to force them to vote yes”, that ALU has campaigned with employees in the queue to vote “or” intimidated “, and also that aluminum activists “threatened immigrants” by advancing the risk they lose “their benefits if they did not vote in favor of the union”.
“It’s absurd,” reacted the Eric Milner’s lawyer on behalf of the union. “The employees spoke and their voices were heard. Amazon chooses (…) to delay the process to avoid the inevitable: the negotiation of a corporate contract”.
Second employer in the United States after Walmart (distribution), the Group had since its inception, in 1994, managed to repel the vulnerabilities of employees wishing to regroup in the country.
“Amazon has spent millions in anti-union consultants, Amazon has organized mandatory meetings, Amazon has behaved in a threatening way, Amazon has licensed employees illegally for trying to unionize,” said Eric Milner.
Tight vote in Alabama
The National Distribution Syndicate (RWDSU) made similar reproaches to Amazon as part of a vote on the unionization of another warehouse, in Bessemer, Alabama. The vote is over, but not the count: not leads with 993 newsletters, against 875 yes, but it remains 416 titles called “disputed”, which will decide the result. A hearing must decide in the coming weeks if these newsletters must be opened and taken into account. There could then be other legal recourse.
In the meantime, the RWDSU has already deposited Thursday a series of objections to the NLRB on the behavior of Amazon, which it accuses of interference. According to the organization, the Amazon managers, for example, prohibited the discussions on the vote in the warehouse, as well as the pro-union prospectuses in the resting spaces, while authorizing the anti-union documentation.
“The employer has instilled confusion, coercion and fear of retaliation in employees,” says RWDSU in its communiqué.
In Alabama, the NLRB must organize a hearing on this trade union’s recourse. The vote held in March, by correspondence, was organized after the cancellation of that of a year ago which had rejected the creation of a union. The federal agency had indeed estimated that Amazon had violated the rules.