Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama removed an obstacle this week in their attempt to unionize, approaching a potential vote next year, which is a challenge for the e-commerce giant that has defended most forces for to unionize in the US
Workers at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, filed a petition in November with the National Council on Labor Relations (NLRB) to join the Union for Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores (RWDSU).
After three days of hearings that ended on Tuesday, the union and Amazon reached an agreement on which workers can participate in the next vote.
The NLRB has not yet set a date for the vote, but expects it to take place early next year.
If the Alabama impulse succeeds, it would establish the first union representation at an Amazon unit in the United States
In the petition, the union said the bargaining unit will cover 1,500 workers at the facility, but Amazon said they should be allowed to vote for additional workers because the facility has more than 5,000 people.
The agreement between the union and Amazon on Tuesday would expand the range of employees in the proposed bargaining unit and would include all seasonal workers that the technology giant has brought in to meet increased seasonal demand.
In response to union pressure, Heather Knox, an Amazon spokeswoman, said: “We don’t think this group represents the majority of our employees’ opinions.”
Knox said the average payment for the warehouse, which opened in March, is $ 15.30 an hour, and the company offers a “safe, innovative, inclusive” environment.
“Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available wherever we work and we encourage anyone to compare our overall salaries, benefits and work environment with any other company with similar jobs.” Knox added.
The NLRB will also decide how the vote will take place.
Amazon is working for a personal vote, although the NLRB has held about 90 percent of its March mail-in election because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The council announced standards on pandemic elections last month. The standards suggest that election by mail is preferred when a county in which there is a unit faces a two-week increase in confirmed cases or when the county reports a 14-day positivity rate of 5 percent or higher.
Jefferson County, where the Bessemer facility is located, reported a weekly positivity rate of more than 16% for the whole of December.
Amazon has avoided efforts to get its US workers to join the union in the past. In 2014, a group of technical workers at a warehouse in Delaware voted against forming a union.
But the company has faced increased control amid the coronavirus pandemic, with workers protesting earlier this year and pushing for increased safety protocols.
The technology giant has repeatedly defended the policies it has implemented to protect its workers during the pandemic.
In addition, Amazon is facing control from lawmakers who want to reduce Amazon’s market power as part of a broader action to address the concentration of market power among US technology giants.