Amazon Union Has Sufficient Signatures for New York Election

Amazon Union Has Enough Signatures for Election in Staten Island

27 Jan 2022, 08:09 PM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. workers at a facility in Staten Island, New York, have collected enough signatures to hold an election on whether to join a union, according to U.S. labor officials.

There is “sufficient showing” to proceed with a petition from the fledgling Amazon Labor Union, a National Labor Relations Board representative said in an email Wednesday.

The ALU filed the petition in December, after previously pulling an application because organizers hadn’t collected enough signatures from current workers. Under federal rules, labor organizers must sign up at least 30% of affected employees. The NLRB has scheduled a formal hearing on the latest petition for Feb. 16.

“I think this one will definitely be the one to get over the hump and be the first union for Amazon,” union leader Chris Smalls said in an interview.

An election, should it be approved, would mark a new escalation in the battle between Amazon and organized labor. Last year, the company handily defeated an effort to unionize a facility in Bessemer, Alabama. But the labor board ordered a fresh election after the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union appealed the outcome, alleging Amazon intimidated workers -- which the company denies.

“We’re skeptical that there are a sufficient number of legitimate signatures, and we’re seeking to understand how these signatures were verified,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in an email. “Our employees have always had a choice of whether or not to join a union, and as we saw just a few months ago, the vast majority of our team in Staten Island did not support the ALU.”

Smalls has notched a significant achievement despite lacking the money and organizing experience of the national unions. He worked at Amazon for more than four years before being fired in 2020 for what the company said was a violation of safety guidelines; Smalls said he was protesting Amazon’s inadequate Covid-19 policies. The dispute is part of an ongoing court battle between the company and New York’s attorney general.

“New York is a union town, and we have a different energy,” Smalls said. “We are the new school, 21st Century, unprecedented style of organizing that you’d never see anywhere else.”