New York City’s second attempt to unionize Amazon facility fails on Monday.
According to data from the National Labor Relations Board, the vote count stood at 380 in favor of unionization and 618 against it. The Staten Island facility, codenamed LDJ5, employs approximately 1,600 people.
The result is a hard blow for Amazon Labor Union, an upstart labor group that won a landslide victory at a large Staten Island Amazon facility in April. That facility’s roughly 8,300 workers are set to be the first unionized Amazon employees in the country — though Amazon has vowed to fight the election’s outcome through appeal with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Amazon labor union, led by former employee Chris Smalls, vowed nonetheless to stay organized.
“Events will continue at this facility and beyond,” the group wrote on Twitter. “raw is War.”
Also on Monday, the NLRB revealed it would move the appeal of the JFK8 vote to an NLRB office in Arizona after Amazon successfully argued that the agency’s Brooklyn office appeared to be biased in favor of union organizers. In the coming weeks, the Arizona NLRB office will decide whether to certify the Amazon Labor union victory or order a new vote.
Progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) rallied with union workers in Staten Island ahead of the LDJ5 vote, with Sanders accusing the company of creating “terrible working conditions”. was accused of. ,
“I say to Jeff Bezos, who owns a $500 million yacht — I say, ‘Jeff, when you’re on your yacht, I want you to think about the workers,'” Sanders said in April. Said at the rally. “They want housing that is affordable. They want to be able to shell out some bucks to send their kids to college. ,
Amazon Labor Union did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
“We are delighted that our team at LDJ5 was able to make their voices heard,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “We look forward to continuing to work together directly as we strive to make every day better for our employees.”
Meanwhile, the result of a separate Amazon union vote in Bessemer, Ala., hangs in the balance as the NLRB decides how to handle the 416 vote, led by Amazon and the union that campaigned, retail, wholesale and department. Store Union.
Additional reporting by Lisa Fixcher
