Amazon Warehouse Workers To Decide Whether To Form Company’s First U.S. Union

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A man works at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. The retail giant faces a major labor battle with a unionization vote planned at a similar warehouse in Alabama.

Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

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Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

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Amazon Warehouse Workers In Alabama Plan Vote On 1st U.S. Union

«The biggest thing is Amazon is one of the biggest employers in the United States and they’re heavily, heavily anti-union, said Arthur Wheaton of The Worker Institute at Cornell University. «So if you can start to get some of their U.S.-based (workers) successfully organized with the union, then that could lead to other cities also doing that.

Unions are a prominent presence at Amazon in Europe, but the company for years successfully fought off labor organizing efforts in the U.S. The last vote on unionization at the company happened in 2014, when a small group of maintenance and repair techs at a Delaware warehouse voted against joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

An RWDSU representative declined comment on Friday’s ruling. Amazon’s representatives did not immediately respond to NPR’s inquiry.

Amazon has said that between March and mid-September, it employed almost 1.4 million front-line workers across Amazon and Whole Foods in the United States. The company has argued the petitioners did not represent «the majority of our employees’ views and touted the warehouse facility’s pay and benefits.

Hundreds of Bessemer workers in November signed cards to petition federal labor authorities for a unionization vote, quickly gaining support of longtime Amazon critic Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The workers’ union-backed website calls for changes to procedures in disciplining, dismissals and safety.

Editor’s note: Amazon is among NPR’s recent financial supporters.