Amazon workers to hold mail union vote starting in February

Bloomberg

Amazon.com Inc workers at an Alabama warehouse will vote by mail in February and March on whether to form a union, the
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said, setting a date for a closely watched referendum on the relationship between the largest online retailer and the employees who pack and ship its products.
A group of about 6,000 frontline employees at the fulfillment centre in Bessemer, Alabama, will decide whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the NLRB said. Typically, such votes are held in person or at a location close to the workplace. Elections since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic have been conducted by mail.
Ballots will be mailed to eligible workers at the Bessemer facility on February 8, and must be received by the NLRB’s regional office by March 29, the agency said in its decision. The federal labor regulator will begin counting the following day.
Amazon, the second-largest US employer behind Walmart Inc, has largely avoided unions in its ranks, though some of its workers in Europe are members of labour groups.
The vote is Amazon’s first in the US since 2014, when a
small group of technicians at
a Delaware warehouse voted against joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Amazon said it disagreed with the NLRB’s decision. “We believe that the best approach to a valid, fair and successful election is one that is conducted
manually, in-person,” spokesperson Heather Knox said in an email. “We will continue to insist on measures for a fair election, and we want everyone to vote, so our focus is ensuring that’s possible.”