Protocol by Anna Kramer
An NLRB judge said that Amazon "usurped" the NLRB by pushing for a mailbox to be installed in front of its facility, and also that the company violated laws that protect workers from monitoring of their behavior during union elections.Bessemer, Alabama warehouse workers will likely get a second union vote because of Amazon's efforts to have a USPS ballot box installed just outside of the Bessemer warehouse facility during the mail-in vote, as well as other violations of union vote rules, according to an NLRB ruling published Tuesday morning.
While union organizers, represented by the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, lost the first vote by more than a 2:1 margin, a second election will be scheduled and held unless Amazon successfully appeals the ruling. Though Amazon is the country's second-largest private employer, no unionization effort at the company has ever been successful.
NLRB hearing officer Kerstin Meyers sustained seven of the RWDSU's objections to Amazon's conduct during the months-long mail-in union election in early 2021, and said that those seven objections were severe enough to merit a second election.
More:
https://www.protocol.com/workplace/amazon-broke-union-election-laws
