Published
November 13, 2024
When workers decide they don’t want a union at their workplace, they should expect their decision to be respected. That’s doubly so when they have made that decision two times.
For the current National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), however, twice isn’t good enough. In their ongoing campaign to force unions on workers, the NLRB has now decided that workers at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, AL., must undergo a third union election.
As this blog observed previously, the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union (RWDSU) originally petitioned to unionize the facility in November 2020, but in April 2021 the union garnered 1,798 votes against representation versus 738 in favor—a margin of over 2:1. Another 505 challenged ballots were never reviewed given the wide margin of defeat. Predictably, union officials groused about their defeat and vowed to keep up their campaign against Amazon.
Despite the lopsided results in the first election, the RWDSU banked on the fact that the Biden NLRB would find any excuse to overturn the results. In Bessemer, one of the union’s chief complaints in the first vote included the fact that the U.S. Postal Service had placed a mailbox in front of the Amazon facility. That fact allegedly sent a signal to employees that Amazon was involved with running the election, which seems silly, but an NLRB hearing officer issued a 60-page report recommending that the first election be redone, all while finding little credence in most of the union’s other charges.
A second election took place in March 2022, and while the margin was closer, the RWDSU lost by a vote of 993-875 out of 2,375 ballots cast among 6,153 eligible voters. The union again lobbed objections alleging any number of violations by Amazon and asked the NLRB to set the results aside. For good measure, the NLRB’s General Counsel filed similar allegations against the company.
In an 87-page report, NLRB ALJ Michael Silverstein found no violation in the majority of the complaints levied against Amazon, but he found merit in a few, which was enough—in his view at least—to set aside the results of the election. In particular, Silverstein faulted the company for allegedly removing pro-union literature that had been placed in various breakrooms and restrooms in the facility, interrogating workers, and sending texts urging employees to report harassment by pro-union colleagues. Based on those findings, Silverstein ordered the NLRB’s regional office to set aside the results of the 2022 election and hold yet another vote at the BHM1 facility.
Whether such an election ever takes place is another question. Changes are coming to the NLRB after January 20, and the types of shenanigans that have been seen in Bessemer may be a thing of the past. Workers will surely be grateful.
About the authors
Sean P. Redmond
Sean P. Redmond is Vice President, Labor Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
