BREAKING: NLRB says Amazon Labor Union has enough support to hold election in Staten Island
BREAKING: NLRB says Amazon Labor Union has enough support to hold election in Staten Island
Company is "skeptical" that the union has obtained enough legitimate signatures, however.
From the Wall Street Journal:
A group of Amazon.com Inc. workers pushing to unionize a large company warehouse in New York won enough support to hold an election, the National Labor Relations Board said, opening a new battlefront between employees and the e-commerce giant.
Supporters of the nascent union, which calls itself the Amazon Labor Union, met the requirement for such a vote, the NLRB said Wednesday, which typically requires signatures from 30% of eligible employees at a facility. Organizers are aiming to unionize thousands of employees at a company warehouse in Staten Island.
An Amazon spokeswoman said the company is skeptical that the union has obtained enough legitimate signatures and is seeking to understand how the signatures were verified.
A hearing is scheduled for February 16th at the NLRB offices in Brooklyn.
From Reuters:
NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado wrote in an email that group of workers, known as the Amazon Labor Union, had "reached a sufficient showing of interest." In order to hold an election supervised by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, unions must show that they have gathered signatures of support from at least 30% of workers who are eligible to vote.
The second time’s a charm:
The Amazon Labor Union, which is not affiliated with a major U.S. union, withdrew its petition in November after the NLRB notified them that they had not collected enough signatures. But on Wednesday afternoon, the NLRB told the group that they had cleared the hurdle, [Chris] Smalls [president of the group and a former Amazon employee] said.
Although the union has a sufficient showing of interest (30%), in order to win an election, it must win 50% + 1 of the votes cast.
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