United States: victory confirmed by a union at Amazon
Outside Amazon's LDJ5 sorting center on Staten Island in New York, U.S., April 25, 2022. REUTERS - BRENDAN MCDERMID
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The American Agency in charge of labor law (NLRB) validated on Wednesday January 11 the vote which led to the creation, at the beginning of 2022, of the first union in one of Amazon's warehouses in the United States, a vote against which the company filed objections.
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In a press release, the Agency rejected the arguments put forward by the online sales giant, thus following the recommendations issued by one of its advisers in early September.
The NLRB now insists on the obligation of “
the employer to negotiate in good faith and request a review of the decision
” before the end of January.
Employees of the JFK8 site, located in the Staten Island district of New York, voted in the majority at the end of March to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organization.
However, the company quickly objected, saying in particular that the union had intimidated the employees to encourage them to vote “yes”.
Amazon also claimed that the local NLRB office favored the
ALU
and facilitated its victory.
“
This is a great time for the labor movement
,” ALU Vice President Derrick Palmer enthused on Twitter, “
we will continue to fight for better contracts for all workers at Amazon everywhere. in the world
”.
BREAKING NEWS ‼️ The ALU @amazonlabor is officially a certified union ‼️This is a huge moment for the labor movement!
We will continue fighting for a better contract for all @amazon workers across the world 🌎 #unionstrong #ALUFORTHEWIN ✊🏾💪🏾 pic.twitter.com/XxteMJ9Onh
— Derrick Palmer (@DerrickPalmer_) January 12, 2023
► To read also: Christian Smalls, the union leader who is shaking up Amazon
Admissible objections
“
We knew there was little chance that the NLRB would go against its own advice and intend to appeal this decision.
We have said this from the start, we do not believe that the electoral process has been fair, legitimate or representative of what the majority of our teams want
, “said Kelly Nantel, spokesperson for Amazon.
The file had been relocated to the office of the NLRB in Phoenix, Arizona (southwest), where an official had deemed that certain objections could be admissible and ordered a hearing.
For an election conducted at another
Amazon warehouse in Alabama
(south) in the spring of 2021, which ended in a “no” on the arrival of a union, the agency had ordered the organization of a new vote on the grounds that the company had broken the rules.
Many ballots having been disputed during a second ballot organized in February and March of this year, the result has still not been certified.
(with
AFP
)
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