Amazon workers vote to unite Staten Island warehouse

Workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York City have voted to form a union, a historic precedent for workers at the e-commerce company. The final tally was 2,654 yes votes, and 2,131 votes, with 67 challenges. Workers at the JFK8 Investigation Center on Staten Island will join the Amazon workers’ union, as the number of challenges is not enough to affect the outcome.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Designed in January that union efforts at the facility “reached a sufficient level of interest” to hold the elections. The facility employs approximately 5,000 people.

at A statement posted on their website Friday, Amazon said it was “disappointed with the outcome of the election because we believe that having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees.” The company is evaluating its options, the publication says, “including filing objections based on improper and unwarranted influence by the NLRB” it claims to have experienced. The post did not specify what “effect” it was referring to.

ALU has been trying to unite Amazon workers in New York for nearly two years. In October 2021, he Apply to the NLRB for union elections to two Amazon facilities on Staten Island, but he later withdrew the application because he did not have enough signatures. the Union Returned in Decemberfocusing only on the JFK8 repository, which was the site of Numerous labor protests and strikes At the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike union efforts in Bessemer, LAC is not affiliated with a national federation or larger organization. It is the personal project of Christian Smalls, who was expelled from the Staten Island site after organizing a strike. After announcing the outcome on Friday Smalls for reporters He wanted to thank former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, “because while he was in space we were sharing people.”

The JFK8 election is the first to approve an Amazon Warehouse Workers union in the United States. next one Another union campaign at the Amazon BHM1 facility In Bessemer, Alabama, the NLRB ordered a rerun of last year’s election after it was decided That Amazon had intervened in the first election. On Thursday, votes in Bessemer seemed to oppose the union, With 933 against and 875 in favor, but since the end result is so close, there will be a hearing for 416 opposition ballot papers. The hearing is expected to be scheduled in the next few weeks, and both Union and Amazon will have the opportunity to file any objections to the election over the next month.

Update April 1st 2:19PM ET: Adds a statement from Amazon and a note from Smalls.