A federal labor official on Wednesday dismissed Amazon’s attempt to overturn a union victory at a Staten Island warehouse, removing a key obstacle to contract negotiations between the union and the company.
The official, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board, found that there was a lack of evidence to support Amazon’s claims about election misconduct and its objections to the election should be rejected.
Chris Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Federation, said in a statement: “Amazon workers won fairly and with integrity. “It’s time for Amazon to stop stalling, obey the law, respect their workers, and sit down at the bargaining table.”
This decision was widely expected after a hearing officer of the labor board proposed in September that corporate objections are set aside. Amazon, which argued the election was unfair because of improper conduct by both its labor council and union, said in a statement that it knew it was unlikely the regional director would rule against the agency. mandarin.
The company said it intends to appeal the decision to a labor council in Washington. “As we said at the outset, we do not believe this electoral process is fair, legal, or representative of the majority of what our team wants,” the statement said.
Labor Organization and Trade Union Promotion
In an interview at The New York Times DealBook conference in late November, Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive officer, shown that the company won’t give up on its challenges, calling the fight “far from over”.
“That really stands a chance of going to federal court,” Mr. Jassy said.
The NLRB’s regional director found that the evidence presented by Amazon did not demonstrate that the board or union acted improperly or that its actions changed the outcome of the call. vote.
For example, Amazon has accused the labor council of failing to control the presence of members of the press near polling stations. But the regional director found that “the press is peacefully assembled and does not engage in voter harassment” and council officials “have no responsibility to instruct the press not to speak to voters or leave the property of the employer.”
Workers at the warehouse, known as JFK8, voted to join The Amazon Labor Union is independent in an election whose results are announced in April. More than 8,000 employees were eligible to participate, and the union won about 10 percentage points.
A few weeks later, the union lost a vote to represent workers at a smaller Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, LDJ5, and it lost another vote at a warehouse near Albany, NY, in October.
Wednesday’s decision comes after another adverse ruling for Amazon regarding operations at JFK8. In mid-November, a federal judge in New York grant an order that requires the company to “stop and cease” firing workers for exercising their labor rights. The judge also forced company officials to read her order to workers at the warehouse.
The case that led to the federal judge’s injunction dates back to the early days of the pandemic, when an Amazon worker protested safe conditions outside of JFK8 and was subsequently fired.
The judge’s ruling essentially tells Amazon that it can’t fire workers for engaging in protected activities like protesting safety conditions or organizing unions. Amazon officials read the judge’s order to workers at JFK8 several times during the first week of December.
