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Amazon loses NLRB bid to reject warehouse workers' historic union in NYC

Amazon had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board and alleged that the Staten Island workers' historic April vote was tainted and the vote should be redone. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
1 of 4 | Amazon had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board and alleged that the Staten Island workers' historic April vote was tainted and the vote should be redone. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A federal labor board has rejected Amazon's effort to stop thousands of workers in New York City from unionizing at one of the retailer's largest warehouses in the United States.

A hearing officer with the National Labor Relations Board rebuffed the attempt by Amazon to nullify the Amazon Labor Union, which was established more than a year ago. In April, an ALU-backed union group on New York's Staten Island became the first unionized Amazon workers to be recognized by the NLRB.

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Hoping to sidestep the union of workers, Amazon filed a complaint with the NLRB and alleged that the historic April vote was tainted and the vote should be redone.

The NLRB turned away Amazon's legal filing on Thursday.

"Today is a great day for Labor," former Amazon worker and Amazon Labor Union President Christian Smalls said in a tweet. It was Smalls who started the union push at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island after he was fired for helping to organize a walkout during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision by Lisa Dunn, the NLRB attorney presiding over the case, affirms the April vote that saw more than 2,600 workers vote in favor of unionization.

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File Photo by Friedemann Vogel/EPA-EFE

A few weeks later, Amazon filed its grievance with the NLRB and accused the board's Brooklyn headquarters of backing the union push, which would be a violation of labor laws. The retailer submitted a list of more than two dozen objections -- and also accused organizers of strong-arming workers into supporting the cause.

The NLRB's Region 29 office held a 24-day hearing on the matter over Zoom, during which Amazon attorneys and ALU officials discussed terms and more than a dozen witnesses gave testimony.

Dunn's filing Thursday concluded that Amazon "had not met its burden" to nullify the April vote and she added that she found no "objectionable conduct affecting the results. She also called for the ALU to head negotiations on the final deal.

Amazon can appeal the decision, and has until Sept. 16 to do so. If it does, the case would be turned over to another regional director of the NLRB, who could either certify the April vote or order a new vote. Ordering a new vote would require Amazon to immediately enter contract talks with the ALU.

Amazon did not immediately comment on the hearing officer's decision.

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The ALU website says it's an "independent, grassroots, worker-led union" that advocates for all its members "to have a seat at the table."

In May, a separate union effort at another Staten Island warehouse failed, but workers at Amazon facilities in upstate New York and Kentucky were said to be seeking to organize under the ALU.

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