Published
September 04, 2024
On August 29, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejected Amazon’s objections to an election held at a Staten Island, NY fulfillment center back in 2022. In the eyes of the NLRB, this means that the former Amazon Labor Union (ALU, now part of the Teamsters) is now certified as the representative of the roughly 8,000 workers at the facility.
Of course, this is not the end of the process. The decision by the NLRB was not unanimous. Member Marvin Kaplan found merit in Amazon’s objections to the conduct of the election. That dissent may matter when the company gets the case into federal court, which is where this dispute is ultimately headed.
The objections to the conduct of the election include trespassing by union leadership, verbal threats to assault opponents of the union, and destruction of company communications. Other allegations included understaffing of the vote count, and unlawful communications by the union with workers as they waited to vote. All of these will likely be raised with a federal judge.
There are two numbers, however, which are more interesting than court proceedings. First, when the election was held, more than 4,700 workers voted. Only 2,654 voted in favor of unionizing—meaning that roughly a third of the facility was able to impose the union on everyone else. That hardly sounds like workplace democracy.
Second, two years later when workers voted on a new slate of ALU officers, less than 250 workers voted—a drop off in participation of roughly 95 percent. In other words, despite the NLRB’s ruling, it seems that the vast majority of employees don’t care much about the union at all. Thus, while the litigation over the election will continue for some time, workers seem to have lost interest.
About the authors
Glenn Spencer
Spencer oversees the Chamber’s work on immigration, retirement security, traditional labor relations, human trafficking, wage hour and worker safety issues, EEOC matters, and state labor and employment law.
