The hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board suggested in a report on Monday that Amazon violated permitted guidelines in April and inappropriately pressured Alabama warehouse workers to oppose Bessemer’s warehouse unionization. Therefore, the election should be held again.
Retail, wholesale, and department store unions’ efforts to organize nearly 6,000 warehouse workers last spring failed to win enough votes to establish a union, but the organizers throughout the process claimed that Amazon managers violated labor laws by using anti-union tactics, such as cameras with cameras. Monitored ballot box.
However, this recommendation is not binding. Now, the NLRB report will be forwarded to the Labor Council’s regional office in Atlanta for a final decision.
RWDSU Chairman Stuart Applebaum (Stuart Applebaum) said that the report and recommendations confirmed the long-held claim of union organizers: Amazon interfered with its workers’ right to form a union.
In a statement, Applebaum said: “At the NLRB hearing, we heard convincing evidence that Amazon tried to illegally interfere and intimidate workers trying to exercise the right to form a union.” “We support the hearing officer’s recommendation that the NLRB shelved it. Election results and guide new elections.”
An Amazon spokesperson pointed out that the vast majority of employees do not want to form a union in Bessemer, which should be today’s day.
“Our employees have the opportunity to be heard during a noisy period when various voices are important in the national debate, and at the end of the day, they voted by an overwhelming majority in favor of establishing direct contact with their managers and the company,” a company spokesperson Say.
“Their voice should be above all else, and we plan to appeal to make sure this happens.”
A spokesperson for NLRB said that the board will not comment on the report.
The warehouse election ended in April, and the union lost 2-1 out of nearly 3,000 votes. But on the eve of and during the election, efforts to organize Amazon—and the company’s management’s apparent anti-union—have attracted national attention.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Georgia governor candidate and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams appeared in a town of 26,000 people.Directly with President Joe Biden Refer to workers’ right to organize.
“As President Biden reminded us earlier this year, the question of whether to form a union should be the decision of the workers, not the employer,” Applebaum pointed out in a statement. “Amazon’s behavior throughout the election process is despicable. Amazon cheated, they were caught, they were held accountable.”
In a letter to Amazon shareholders after the union election in April, former CEO and company founder Jeff Bezos admitted that the union’s election campaign had damaged public image.
“Is your chairman pleased with the results of the recent union vote in Bessemer? No, he didn’t. I think we need to do better for our employees,” Bezos wrote on April 15.
“Although the voting results are unbalanced and our direct relationship with employees is very strong, I know very well that we need a better vision to create value for employees-their vision of success,” Bezos added.