Amazon seeks to overturn union win, says vote was tainted

Amazon seeks to overturn the historic union win at one of its New York City warehouses. In a legal filing Friday, it argues that both the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (USNLRB) and union organizers acted in a way that tainted these results. It wants to re-run the election.

The filing obtained from The Associated Press by the e-commerce giant contained 25 objections. The filing accuses organizers with the Amazon Labor Union of intimidating workers into voting for the union. This claim was made by an attorney representing the group. “patently absurd.”

“The employees have spoken,”Eric Milner, an attorney, stated Thursday that Amazon’s initial planned objections had been made public in another legal filing. “Amazon is choosing to ignore that, and instead engage in stalling tactics to avoid the inevitable — coming to the bargaining table and negotiating for a contract”He spoke on behalf des workers.

Staten Island warehouse workers cast 2,654 votes (or about 55%) in favor of a union. This gave the group enough support to win last Friday.

Amazon made one objection: organizers “intentionally created hostile confrontations in front of eligible voters,”To persuade its employees not to join the union drive, the company interrupted mandatory meetings. The company revealed that it spent approximately US$4.2 million last fiscal year on labor consultants in a last week filed.

Amazon also objected to the distribution of cannabis to workers by claiming that the labor board was responsible. “cannot condone such a practice as a legitimate method of obtaining support for a labor organization.”New York legalized recreational use of marijuana for those over 21 last year.

Initial indications that the company would challenge the election results were based upon a lawsuit filed by NLRB in March. The lawsuit sought to force Amazon into rehiring a fired employee who was involved with the union drive.

In one of its Friday objections, the company pointed out the lawsuit and stated that the regional NLRB offices had brought the suit. “failed to protect the integrity and neutrality of its procedures,”By seeking reinstatement for Gerald Bryson, a former employee, he created an impression of support for unions.

“Based on the evidence we’ve seen so far, as set out in our objections, we believe that the actions of the NLRB and the ALU improperly suppressed and influenced the vote, and we think the election should be conducted again so that a fair and broadly representative vote can be had,”Kelly Nantel, Amazon spokesperson, stated in a statement.

After leading a protest calling on the company to do more for workers against COVID-19, Bryson was fired from his job in the early days. Frank Kearl, his attorney, said that Bryson was fired after he got into a dispute while on the job protesting against Amazon’s vulgar-language policy.

The NLRB did no immediate respond to a request for comments. Kayla Blado (the spokesperson for the NLRB) previously stated that Congress has authorized the independent agency to enforce the National Labor Relations Act.

“All NLRB enforcement actions against Amazon have been consistent with that Congressional mandate,”She spoke.