The union drive at an Amazon (AMZN) warehouse in Alabama is headed for defeat, partial results from the historic election revealed. Votes against the union had a 2-1 advantage over votes for the union with half the ballots counted as of late Thursday, according to a live broadcast of the counting reported on by The New York Times.
The impending outcome concludes a high-profile, months-long labor battle that unfolded as the COVID-19 pandemic drove record sales for the e-commerce giant but exposed its warehouse employees to life-and-death safety risks.
The result would mark a significant victory for Amazon, the nation’s second-largest private sector employer, which has faced heightened criticism in recent months over the conditions in its vast warehouse network. Meanwhile, the tally strikes a blow to the labor movement, which had been eager to reverse decades of union decline and gain a foothold in the growing tech sector.
Votes were cast by 3,200 Amazon employees at the facility in Bessemer, Al., roughly 55% of the workers eligible to participate, said the the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, or RWDSU.
Workers criticized grueling conditions enforced by digital devices that they say track them every minute. Employees also claimed inadequate safety protections heightened stress and health risks tied to COVID-19. But Amazon strongly rebuked such claims, citing a host of safety measures implemented during the pandemic and a compensation package that includes benefits and entry-level pay of $15.30, more than double the federal minimum wage.
With the vote count still in progress, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum said on Thursday the labor organization would call on the labor board to "hold Amazon accountable" for allegedly illegal anti-union conduct undertaken by the tech giant. A challenge by the union at the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, could stretch on for months but, if successful, would decertify the results and require a second election.
Paul Clark, Director of Penn State's School of Labor and Employment Relations, said prior to the final vote tally that it's plausible Amazon may have violated labor law in its anti-union campaign.
"There's a lot of evidence that employers often do violate because the penalties just don't provide an incentive to abide by the law," he says. "The union appeals, maybe the board does find irregularities, in which case they might rerun the election."
Amazon made its anti-union position known in an aggressive campaign carried out through multiple avenues, including mandatory meetings and a website that warned of onerous dues payments. But federal labor law permits employers wide latitude in dissuading workers from supporting a labor drive.
The messages amounted to “anti-union propaganda,” Appelbaum told Yahoo Finance last month. (The company abided by all NLRB rules and guidelines as it relates to union campaigns, and believes it is important for all employees to understand all sides of the union election, Amazon told Yahoo Finance in February.)
‘Outsized’ meaning for both sides
Erik Loomis, a labor historian and professor at the University of Rhode Island, said on the last day of voting, March 29, that the outcome would carry “huge symbolic meaning” for Amazon and the labor movement.
“On the face of it, the stakes for either side shouldn’t be that big — it’s one warehouse,” says Loomis. But “the symbolic meaning of this union vote is outsized for both sides.”
“The labor movement has struggled in recent decades to transition to the new economy and this is a chance to turn the tides,” he adds. “For Amazon, it’s about control over the workplace.”
The union drive has drawn intense interest from top officials on both sides of the aisle in Washington D.C. President Joe Biden released a video in early March defending the right of workers to unionize and made reference to "workers in Alabama" without mentioning Amazon, widely perceived as an allusion to the labor battle at the tech giant.
During the final weeks of mail-in voting, which stretched from early February to late March, a worker at the plant advocated for the union at a hearing of the powerful Senate Budget Committee, chaired by progressive Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who later visited the facility in Bessemer. The unionizing workers also received support from conservative Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who cast his position as part of a larger effort to limit the cultural influence of liberal-minded tech giants.
For years, Amazon has withstood persistent criticism over the conditions at its warehouse network, which has grown to at least 110 fulfillment centers in North America. In recent years, criticism of the working conditions focused on demanding quotas and digital surveillance that employees say penalized them for taking breaks.
The company instituted a $15 wage floor three years ago, and last month backed legislation that would gradually raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour. But national interest in the Bessemer union drive spurred more than 1,000 Amazon employees across the U.S. to contact RWDSU about potential labor organizing efforts, the union said in March.
“We all tend to think unions are about wages and benefits,” says Ileen Devault, a professor of labor history at Cornell University and director of the school’s Worker Institute. “More than that, unions are a way for workers to have a voice in their workplaces.”
“Why should an algorithm push people beyond their physical endurance, especially in a time of a global pandemic?” she asks.
The novel coronavirus has fueled record e-commerce revenue for Amazon as hundreds of millions of Americans have been forced into their homes, prompting the hiring of hundreds of thousands of workers and plans to expand its warehouse network. But it has also elicited a new set of grievances around health risks and inadequate compensation tied to the pandemic. By last October, 19,816 employees had tested positive or been presumed positive for COVID-19, Amazon said that month.
Soon after the outset of the pandemic, in March 2020, workers at a Staten Island warehouse held an initial protest over coronavirus exposure fears. In the ensuing months, the demonstrations grew to hundreds of workers spread across 50 warehouses nationwide. The worker organizing has culminated in the union vote that wrapped up last month at a facility in Bessemer, Alabama, where 85% of the workers are Black, according to a union estimate.
“Just because you’re getting paid, it doesn’t mean you’re being treated fairly,” says Derrick Palmer, 32, an employee at the company’s Staten Island warehouse who traveled to the Bessemer facility in February to support the union drive.
Palmer said he and some coworkers at the Staten Island facility have discussed restarting a union drive that failed at the site two years ago; he has heard from workers at other facilities who want to begin their own unionization efforts.
Before he knew the outcome of the election, Palmer said its impact was already clear.
“It will inspire other workers to organize,” he says.
Max Zahn is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Find him on twitter @MaxZahn_.
Dan Howley is the tech editor at Yahoo Finance. Find him on twitter @DanielHowley.
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