Amazon employees in Alabama will have another opportunity to unionize Workers’ Rights News

But despite the second election, expert workers say the union’s victory is very long, as Amazon will file an appeal and try to postpone another vote.

New union elections for Amazon workers will be held in Bessemer, Alabama, USA based on the impediments to the first vote in April.

This move is a big blow for Amazon, which spent about a year in Bessemer’s warehouse workers in an aggressive campaign to oust the union, and they ultimately made a big difference.

The rare call was announced on Monday by the Union of Retail, Wholesale and Shopkeeping Departments (RWDSU), the leader of the trade union organizing movement. A spokesman for the National Labor Relations Council has confirmed the decision, but has yet to provide details.

RWDSU accused Amazon of illegal behavior in the first ballot. In August, the NLRB hearing officer who directed the case determined that Amazon had violated the labor law and advised the regional director to set aside the results and run another election.

The main reason for the decision was the U.S. Postal Service mailbox that Amazon installed in the parking lot before the election, which could leave a false impression that the company was holding an election. Parking lot security cameras can scare away employees who thought Amazon was watching the employee vote. About 53% of the nearly 6,000 workers voted in the first election.

Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel called the decision “disappointing.”

“Our employees have always had the option of choosing whether to join a union, and at the beginning of the year they mostly decided not to join RWDSU,” he said. “It is disappointing that the NLRB has now decided that these votes should not be counted.”

Stuart Appelbaum, president of RWDSU, sees the NLRB’s decision as a victory.

“Today’s decision confirms what we’ve been saying all along – that Amazon’s threats and interventions prevented workers from having a fair word to say whether they wanted a union in their workplace – and the regional director said this is unacceptable and illegal.” he said in a statement. “Amazon employees deserve to have a voice at work, which can only come from the union.”

But despite the second election, labor experts say a victory for the union is far from over. Amazon will appeal and try to postpone another vote. And even when elections are held, workers can choose to vote against joining a union again. Last time, 1,798 workers rejected the union and 738 voted in favor.

Repeating the election means another fight for Amazon with RWDSU. The first election caught the attention of the entire nation and saw how Amazon treats its employees. It was the biggest union push in Amazon’s history and it was only the second time he had come to vote on the organizational effort within the company.

Workers at the Bessemer facilities union said they were given 10-hour shifts at the warehouse, where online orders were packaged and shipped, and that they did not have enough time for breaks. A union could force Amazon to offer more breaks or higher pay, those workers said. Amazon, meanwhile, argued that it already offered more than double the minimum wage in Alabama plus benefits without having to pay union dues to employees.

This is the second attempt at unionization of Amazon workers in the last year.

A group of Amazon workers on Staten Island (New York) withdrew their application for a union vote in early November. Employees, however, can submit an application.

The New York organizational effort is working without the help of a national sponsor and is led by former Amazon employee Christian Smalls. He said he was released last year to protest the initial working conditions of the coronavirus pandemic.