Counting of votes in New York
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First Amazon location in the US gets union representation
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Jason Anthony, union organizer at the Amazon distribution center, speaks to the media during the release of the union formation vote results.
Photo: AP/Eduardo Munoz Avarez
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New York After years of blockade by their employer, employees of the mail order giant Amazon in the USA will soon be represented by a union for the first time.
According to the Friday count, 2,654 votes were cast for union representation in a vote at an Amazon warehouse in New York’s Staten Island district, while 2,131 employees voted against.
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Around 57 percent of the more than 8,300 employees on the voter list cast their votes. The result will be checked by the federal labor authorities after the objection period has expired on April 8th.
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At another Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, preliminary results showed Thursday a narrow vote against the union. However, she announced that she would contest invalid votes, which could still reverse the result.
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Already last year the workers in Bessemer had quite clearly rejected union representation. On Thursday the result was much tighter with 993 to 875. The workers had started a movement, said union boss Stuart Appelbaum. “This is just the beginning and we will keep fighting.”
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In the New York Amazon center with more than 8,000 employees, a victory for the employee representatives was not expected because no established union was behind the project. One of the main culprits was a fired ex-Amazon employee, Chris Smalls. It feels great to be on the winning track against a multi-trillion-dollar company, he said after the first day of counting.
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Union organizing in the US differs from that in Germany – workers at a plant can vote in a majority decision on whether they want to be jointly represented by a union.
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