[ad_1]
“Today’s decision reaffirms what we’ve been saying all along — that Amazon’s harassment and interference prevented workers from having an honest say in whether they wanted a union in their workplace — and as the regional director That’s both unacceptable and illegal,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the union that aims to represent nearly 6,000 warehouse workers. “Amazon workers deserve a voice at work that can only come from a union.”
The regional director said Amazon’s actions amounted to “blatant disregard” of voting rules, and “made a free and fair election impossible.” One of the issues in the complaints was a mailbox at the warehouse entrance near signs encouraging workers to vote against the union.
The director also noted that the company was conducting an extensive campaign to question workers about their support for the union “violating their right to an election free of coercion and interference”.
“Our employees have always had the choice of joining or not joining a union, and they overwhelmingly chose not to join the RWDSU earlier this year,” said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel. “It is disappointing that the NLRB has now decided that those votes should not count.”
Amazon has argued that the union would make it more difficult to improve working conditions in these and other Amazon locations.
“As a company, we don’t think unions are the best solution for our employees,” Nantel said. “While we have made great strides in key areas such as compensation and safety, we know there are many things we can continue to do better, both in our fulfillment centers and in our corporate offices, and that is our focus – working directly with our employees to get better every day.”
But the effort lost heavily in the April election, with 738 votes for the union and 1,798 votes against. There were also 505 ballots contested by one side or the other, but that was not enough to change the outcome of the vote.
A date for the new elections has not yet been set.
But unions have lost much of the influence they once had when they represented workers in what were then the major industries in the United States. According to the Department of Labor, only 6% of U.S. workers are unionized today, up from 17% in 1983, the first year union membership was followed by the service.
— Sara Ashley O’Brien of CNN Business contributed to this report
|
Sources 2/ https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/business/amazon-union-vote-alabama/index.html The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
[ad_2]