Amazon workers in New York take first step to form union
Amazon workers in New York take first step to form union
Workers at online giant Amazon in New York have taken a first formal step toward forming a union, joining together to form the self-styled Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and submitting more than 2,000 signatures for a ballot to the Brooklyn labor rights board on Monday (local time), ALU president Christian Smalls said. ALU attorney Eric Milner said the minimum of 30 percent of the votes had been reached.
The ALU collected the votes at an Amazon warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island. According to attorney Milner, the Labor Relations Board (NLRB) now scheduled a hearing for Nov. 15. Already, Amazon has a duty to inform workers at the facility about the required vote, he said. An Amazon spokeswoman said the company doubted that a sufficient number of legitimate signatures had been gathered to justify electing a workers’ representative.
“This is New York”
The next step in forming a union is a vote at the plant, in which more than half the workers would have to vote in favor. That failed in April at an Amazon logistics center in the town of Bessemer in the U.S. state of Alabama.
“This is New York. This is a union town, and we’re going to prove it,” Smalls said. He had been fired by Amazon several months ago and is suing over that, as well as the Corona pandemic protection conditions at the Staten Island operation.
Smalls had reported management’s resistance to forming a union a few days ago. “We are facing the same strategies that were used in Bessemer, Alabama.” For example, “outside consultants who specialize in fighting unions” would come to the workplace, and anti-union posters would go up. Among other things, the ALU is demanding higher wages, safer working conditions and more vacation time. Amazon argues that the company pays above-average wages and benefits.
Amazon is criticized in the USA for the working conditions of its 950,000 employees. Unions and also politicians criticize that the employees are exposed to high work pressure and permanent control. In Germany, too, there are repeated strikes and demands for a collective agreement at Amazon.
The online giant has profited massively from the closed stores in the Corona pandemic. Amazon employs about 1.3 million people worldwide; it had added about 500,000 people in 2020.