Labor Council Denies Amazon’s Request to Postpone Alabama Union Vote

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) denied Amazon’s motion to postpone a union election at one of its warehouses in Alabama scheduled for Monday.

Last month, the e-commerce giant filed a motion with the U.S. labor council to delay the vote and give the council more time to reconsider its previous decision to conduct the election by post over a period of almost two months to have a “fair” “election, despite the continued threat of the coronavirus.

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Starting on Monday, employees at the Bessemer facility will have until March 29 to send their ballots.

In November, officials at the Bessemer facility filed a petition with the NLRB saying they wanted to hold an election to form a union to represent the 1,500 part-time and full-time workers at the distribution center. The plan does not include drivers, seasonal employees, professional employees and others.

Employees seek to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores Union.

“The objective of meeting with our co-workers to form a union is to have better working conditions, better salaries and to be treated with respect and dignity at work”, said a website created in support of the formation of a union in the facilities of the Alabama.

His drive to form a union was supported by Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Who said his efforts would mark a turning point for “all workers in America”.

However, Amazon has previously argued that personal voting is the best way to “approach a valid, fair and successful election”. The company also said it would make it “easier for members to check and vote.”

Amazon spokesman Owen Torres told FOX Business that the company’s goal was to get as many employees as possible to vote and “we are disappointed by the NLRB’s decision not to provide the most fair and effective format to achieve maximum employee participation “.

Torres argued that the labor council “recognizes that the participation rate of employees in their own elections conducted with ballots in the mail is 20-30% lower than the participation rate in personal voting”.

Torres also said that the company had “proposed a safe local election process, validated by COVID-19 experts, that would have allowed our associates to vote on their way to, during and from their already scheduled shifts”.

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Still, the NLRB considered postal ballots to be “the safest and most appropriate method of conducting an election in view of the extraordinary circumstances presented by the pandemic COVID-19,” officials wrote in a warning.

Although the company said it respects its decision, Amazon said the deposit has created thousands of full-time jobs in Bessemer since opening in March. The average wage is $ 15.30 an hour, including full health care, vision and dental insurance.

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“We respect our employees ‘right to join a union or not, but we don’t believe that group represents the majority of our employees’ opinions,” said Amazon spokeswoman Heather Knox earlier this year.

The company “will continue to insist on measures for a fair election that will allow the majority of our employees’ voices to be heard,” Torres said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.