Workers from a different warehouse submitted a petition for an election on Tuesday in upstate New York, supported by the grassroots labor group that won the first-ever union victory for an Amazon facility in the US.
According to a spokesman for the National Labor Relations Board, the petition was submitted for the ALB1 warehouse in Schodack, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Albany.
The NLRB requires signatures from 30% of eligible voters at a particular plant in order to qualify for a union election. The issue of whether or not workers have attained that level will probably be resolved in the upcoming weeks.
According to Paul Flaningan, an Amazon spokesperson, there are about 1,000 warehouse employees working at the Schodack facility. However, the Amazon Labor Union, a young union supporting the workers, stated in the filing that the bargaining unit would consist of about 400 workers.
In an interview earlier this month, Heather Goodall, a warehouse worker and former insurance agent who is driving the organizing campaign, said that workers had enough support to file for a union petition but were opting to wait to collect more signatures. She claimed on Tuesday that the group's lawyers weren't prepared to make public information on the quantity of signatures gathered.
Now that the petition has been signed, the NLRB must determine whether the signatories are eligible to run for office. The Amazon Labor Union, which achieved a union victory in Staten Island, New York, in April, and the corporation will hold an election there if the agency approves, and it will set the dates and times for that election.
After Goodall approached it, the union, which is made up of former and present warehouse workers, started supporting organizing efforts in upstate New York. Goodall joined Amazon in February to investigate the working conditions at the company. She started talking to her coworkers about organizing right away, and in May she and a few other workers started the union campaign.
Soon after, according to Goodall, she met with the Teamsters and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, or RWDSU. The RWDSU had previously challenged Amazon in a union election at a facility in Bessemer, Alabama, the outcome of which is still being disputed.
In the end, organizers, according to her, chose to take a more grassroots approach and join with the ALU because they felt the latter group had a better understanding of the business than other well-known unions.
It was logical, according to Goodall, that we should collaborate with them directly and keep expanding the Amazon Labor Union on a nationwide scale.
In essence, a labor victory in Schodack would increase the support for the ALU within Amazon and turn it into a focal point for labor issues outside of Staten Island. It might also rekindle enthusiasm that had started to flag after the group's loss in May at a second Staten Island warehouse and rumors that it had stopped recruiting at two additional buildings nearby.
Amazon has filed more than two dozen challenges to that election, and the ALU is defending its lone victory against them at the same time. During a contentious, week-long NLRB hearing that ended in mid-July, attorneys for each side made an effort to refute the assertions of the other party. On the upcoming weeks, it's anticipated that a decision in that matter will be made.
Activists claim that Amazon has already started organizing talks with employees in Schodack to dissuade them from joining a union. The Amazon representative, Flaningan, stated in a statement that workers are free to select what they want to do.
We as a business don't believe that unions are the greatest option for our staff, "said Flaningan. "To continue making Amazon a fantastic place to work, our key priority is to collaborate closely with our staff.
Numerous TikTok producers have pledged to avoid doing business with Amazon unless it complies with the union's demands, which include a minimum pay of $30 (about Rs. 2,300) per hour and longer breaks. Tuesday saw the launch of a campaign by over 70 content producers supported by the charity Gen-Z for Change, who say they won't monetize their platforms for Amazon unless "concrete improvements" are made to better working conditions.
The letter that the group posted on Twitter stated that "Amazon's systemic maltreatment of their workers and flagrant use of union busting methods will no longer be allowed by the TikTok Community or TikTok Creators."
An inquiry for comments on the campaign was not answered by Amazon.
Workers have been running additional campaigns at corporate warehouses in places like North Carolina and Kentucky in an effort to get enough signatures to file a petition for their own elections. Workers in upstate New York are demanding greater training at the company's warehouse and higher compensation among other things.
Because they can't afford gas, some of our employees can't even get to work, according to Goodall. They are unable to support their family and cannot afford car maintenance.
The petition comes as Amazon and its nationwide warehouse operations are under increased scrutiny. Numerous employees at a firm air hub in San Bernardino, California, left their jobs on Monday to protest low pay and heat safety.
Additionally, federal officials have been increasingly interested. OSHA conducted inspections of Amazon operations in a few states last month as a result of referrals for health and safety issues. A representative for the office said that the civil section of the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is also looking into fraud intended to conceal injuries from OSHA and others, as well as safety problems at Amazon warehouses.
