Amazon Union Vote Suffers Defeat In Alabama

BESSEMER, AL — Alabama's Amazon workers will not become the first Amazon facility to unionize, as the final tally showed 1,798 votes against unionizing and 738 votes in favor of joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the US, with more than 800,000 employees, and it has successfully resisted previous attempts at worker unionization. Only one other Amazon unionization effort has even made it to a vote — a small group of repair technicians in Delaware in 2014 — and the attempt failed.

The union said in a statement Friday that it is filing objections to the conduct of the election and related unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Amazon of interfering with the rights of the Bessemer employees to vote in a free and fair election.

"Amazon has left no stone unturned in its efforts to gaslight its own employees," said Stuart Applebaum, the union's president. "We won’t let Amazon’s lies, deception and illegal activities go unchallenged, which is why we are formally filing charges against all of the egregious and blatantly illegal actions taken by Amazon during the union vote."

Applebaum accused Amazon of requiring all of their employees to attend numerous lectures opposing the union and spreading misinformation through social media and ads. Applebaum also accused Amazon of harassing Bessemer employees with anti-union messages leading up to the vote.

"Worst yet, even though the NLRB definitively denied Amazon's request for a drop box on the warehouse property, Amazon felt it was above the law and worked with the postal service anyway to install one," Applebaum said. "They did this because it provided a clear ability to intimidate workers."

Applebaum added, "Working people deserve better than the way Amazon has conducted itself during this campaign. This campaign has proven that the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is to join together in a union. However, Amazon’s behavior during the election cannot be ignored and our union will seek remedy to each and every improper action Amazon took. We won’t rest until workers' voices are heard fairly under the law. When they are, we believe they will be victorious in this historic and critical fight to unionize the first Amazon warehouse in the United States."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said the impact of the vote itself, albeit unsuccessful, is significant.

"Amazon executives may be celebrating that this fight is over, but we’re not going anywhere," Warren said via social media Friday. "This fight in Alabama has made a real difference for workers across the country – and it will make it easier for the next fight, and the fight after that, and the fight after that."

The AFL-CIO and GBAO released a nationwide poll of registered voters that found more than three-quarters of Americans support workers’ efforts to organize a union at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer.

"The heroic Amazon workers in Bessemer have made history, helping pave the path toward workplace justice for all," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Friday. "Even under systematic bullying and intimidation by one of the largest companies in the world, they fought to reclaim a rightful share of power and take the future into their own hands. They spoke out and shared a reality that too many working people recognize—the brutality of being underpaid, overworked and constantly afraid of what lies ahead."

Since February 2020, 37 charges have been filed with the NLRB against Amazon across 20 cities, according to an NBC report. In that same time frame, retail giant Walmart has had just eight charges filed.

Charges against Amazon from employees have included unjust retaliation for protected activity, denial of sick pay, selective enforcement of pandemic-related rules and a variety of unhealthy working conditions.

"Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire, and we encourage anyone to compare our overall pay, benefits, and workplace environment to any other company with similar jobs," Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski said in March.