The firm alleged that the regional workplace of the company, based mostly in Brooklyn, “created the impression” it was supporting the union by submitting a lawsuit in opposition to Amazon earlier than the vote. Amazon additionally alleged the NLRB delayed investigating “unmeritorious” unfair labor apply costs and understaffed the election.
Amazon additionally alleges the unbiased Amazon Labor Union harassed workers who didn’t assist the union, trespassed on Amazon’s property and “misled employees by telling them that they would lose their benefits if they did not support the ALU,” amongst different points.
Amazon’s transfer comes after a monumental vote final week when hundreds of employees at the Staten Island warehouse voted to be part of the union, marking the first profitable vote to unionize an Amazon warehouse in the United States. It was pushed by the unbiased Amazon Labor Union, an upstart effort with no formal ties to nationwide labor organizations, and was led by present and former Amazon employees, who organized the beautiful victory.
Now, Amazon is deploying its plan to battle again in opposition to the election outcomes, starting with its objections. Labor attorneys say the firm, which strongly opposed unionization, may attempt to delay the means of employees forming a union for years.
“Amazon probably figures it has nothing to lose by exhausting every possible appeals process because time is on its side,” stated John Logan, chair of the labor and employment research division at San Francisco State University.
The NLRB on Thursday granted an extension request from Amazon and gave the firm till April 22 to file proof for the objections. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel stated in an announcement that the firm believes the election must be redone as a result of the NLRB and the Amazon Labor Union “improperly suppressed and influenced the vote.”
“We’ve always said that we want our employees to have their voices heard, and in this case, that didn’t happen — fewer than a third of the employees at the site voted for the union, and overall turnout was unusually low,” she stated.
On Friday, the NLRB repeated its assertion that it launched final week.
“The NLRB is an independent federal agency that Congress has charged with enforcing the National Labor Relations Act,” spokeswoman Kayla Blado stated. “All NLRB enforcement actions against Amazon have been consistent with that congressional mandate.”
A consultant for the Amazon Labor Union stated none of Amazon’s objections had advantage and referred to as them a tactic to delay the union.
“It’s a blatant attempt by Amazon to interfere with and go around the democratic choice of their workforce,” Amazon employee and labor organizer Connor Spence stated. “If they really were striving to be ‘Earth’s Best Employer,’ they wouldn’t engage in this kind of behavior.”
The NLRB will want to certify the vote earlier than the union can attempt to discount a contract with Amazon. The objections may delay and even cancel that course of, relying on what the NLRB decides. Amazon has many avenues to battle the vote outcomes, together with by refusing to discount and forcing regulators to get entangled.
Amazon has confronted elevated stress since the pandemic started from employees pushing to get higher pay, safer working circumstances and fewer surveillance at its community of warehouses round the nation. Workers in each Staten Island and Bessemer, Ala., began the early levels of organizing throughout the first months of the pandemic, when workers have been involved that the firm wasn’t doing sufficient to cease the unfold of the coronavirus by the amenities.
In Alabama, employees partnered with the nationwide Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and held an election final yr. The union was rejected by a large margin, however the NLRB later referred to as for a brand new election after it discovered that Amazon had improperly interfered. The second vote was counted final month, and it stays too shut to name as the events contemplate challenged ballots and objections.
Both the union and Amazon filed objections in Alabama this week.
In the New York election, Amazon’s objections embrace an allegation that the NLRB improperly helped the union attain a required threshold of signatures from workers to file for the vote. The company did this by eradicating greater than 1,500 workers from the listing of eligible employees, Amazon alleged.
“The Region’s willingness to bend its rules lent a false air of legitimacy to the Union and constituted obvious and improper assistance to the ALU,” Amazon wrote in its submitting.
The firm additionally alleged that the NLRB informed workers to cowl up their shirts that stated “Vote No,” however let voters put on Amazon Labor Union garments. Amazon stated that the NLRB ought to have higher managed members of the media close to the polls, as a result of employees may have been discouraged from voting. And the firm referred to as out the Amazon Labor Union’s apply of handing out marijuana to employees, saying the NLRB “cannot condone such a practice as a legitimate method of obtaining support for a labor organization.”
Organizing on Staten Island began two years in the past when Chris Smalls, a fired warehouse employee, started rallying employees and later helped kind the Amazon Labor Union final yr. Smalls stated that the union was stronger as an unbiased, worker-led group with an insider view.
Amazon strongly opposed unionization at its amenities, and employed consultants, printed posters and held obligatory courses for employees to discourage them for voting to unionize. Those courses, referred to as “captive audience meetings,” could quickly be on the chopping block after NLRB normal counsel Jennifer Abruzzo stated in a memo this week she would ask the board to contemplate making the courses a violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
The company will maintain a listening to to contemplate Amazon’s objections in Staten Island as soon as all the proof is in.
Amazon objected to an NLRB swimsuit filed in opposition to the firm earlier than the vote, which requested for a courtroom to order Amazon to reinstate a fired employee.
Amazon stated it fired the worker as a result of he was allegedly bullying and defaming a feminine co-worker throughout an altercation caught on video. In a abstract to the administrative decide, NLRB counsel wrote that Amazon’s purpose for firing the employee was “mere pretext” and he was truly fired for organizing protests of Amazon’s working circumstances.
Amazon hinted at this lawsuit in its assertion after the election final week, saying that it was contemplating submitting objections associated to what it referred to as the “inappropriate and undue influence by the NLRB.”
Nantel, the Amazon spokeswoman, stated at the time that it was “noteworthy that the NLRB is pursuing an ‘emergency injunction’ right before an election when they’ve known the facts in this case for over 18 months.”
The case had been making its approach by the NLRB’s administrative courtroom system for almost two years.
The NLRB defended the company’s function in conducting the Staten Island election final week. “The NLRB is an independent federal agency that Congress has charged with enforcing the National Labor Relations Act,” Blado stated in response to the Amazon assertion.