A protester during the count of votes to organize Amazon workers outside the offices of the National Labor Relations Board in New York, U.S., on Friday, April 1, 2022.
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Amazon workers on Staten Island in New York just made history by becoming the first group to vote to organize at a US facility operated by the country’s largest e-commerce company.
After a hard-fought battle, the result is a major defeat for Amazon, which has used all its might to keep organized labor out of its operations. As of Friday, the Staten Island warehouse known as JFK8 had a tally of 2,654 Votes for joining the union and 2,131 against, with 67 ballots contested.
The fulfillment center won’t turn into a union store overnight, and there may be a long way to go. But the wheels are turning for change.
Here’s what happens next:
Delays, challenges and negotiations
The Amazon union didn’t even exist until last year. Now the grassroots organization, which relied on a crowdfunding campaign to fund its organizing, is responsible for negotiating a collective bargaining agreement on behalf of some 6,000 employees at Amazon’s largest fulfillment center in New York.
The ALU is led by Christian Smalls, a former JFK8 executive who was fired by Amazon in 2020 after the company claimed he broke social distancing rules.
Instead of dictating wages, benefits and working conditions, as it does in its vast network of offices, data centers and warehouses, Amazon now has to negotiate these important details with union leaders when it comes to JFK8.
Contract talks between ALU and Amazon could start soon. But don’t bet on it.
“Amazon will delay,” said David Rosenfeld, an employment attorney with Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld and an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. “You’re not going to walk in and do the right thing because that’s going to encourage organizing everywhere else. They will do anything to avoid a contract and it’s going to be a big, long and nasty fight.”
According to an analysis published in June by Bloomberg Law, it takes an average of 409 days for collective agreements to be signed between employers and their newly unionized employees.
Jason Anthony, a member of the Amazon Labor Union, speaks on Friday, April 1.
jeenah moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
When the goal is delay, Amazon has unlimited resources to hire the best lawyers and consultants. The company has already expressed disappointment with the outcome and said it is considering its options, including “lodging objections alleging improper and improper interference” with the National Labor Relations Board. Amazon hasn’t reported any instances of undue interference, but said the National Retail Federation and the Chamber of Commerce have observed the same behavior.
Both Amazon and the union can object to behavior during the election. Both parties have left this door open. Any appeal must be submitted to the NLRB Regional Office by April 8th. The agency will investigate the allegations and, if there is sufficient evidence, schedule a hearing where each side can present their case.
Challenges don’t have to end here. If they are unhappy with the Regional Director’s decision, either side can escalate their grievance to the NLRB Board of Directors in Washington.
Why wait?
Precedent is Amazon’s main concern. JFK8 is one of over 100 Amazon fulfillment centers in the US, and there are many truckers and delivery drivers who are not part of those facilities. Workers in Bessemer, Alabama, just completed a second vote on whether to unionize, and although the effort appears to have failed again, the count was far closer than in the first contest last year.
Amazon has no interest in the movement gaining momentum. And the company says it doesn’t need to. Fulfillment center pay starts at $18 an hour, well above the minimum wage in every state. Amazon also offers health insurance, paid parental leave, and educational opportunities.
Such a package has proved enticing for many workers, particularly in parts of the country where older industries have died out and well-paying blue-collar jobs are scarce. But Amazon’s warehouse model is not based on retention. As the New York Times reported last year, the company has adjusted to a pattern that involves extremely high employee turnover.
From the looks of it, Amazon gets everything under control. If employees are unhappy, they can walk out the door. Adding a union completely changes this dynamic, as workers gain bargaining power and a seat at the table.
Amazon has an opportunity to face that reality, said Anastasia Christman, senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project in New York.
“They have this choice that they can make,” Christman said. “You can either choose to continue to fight this in a very negative way or say workers have identified issues in the workforce and let’s hear them out.”
While the enforcement mechanisms Amazon faces may be limited, public pressure is growing and the labor movement is gaining support.
Starbucks baristas at several locations voted to unionize, and in late March, Google Fiber contractors in Kansas City, Missouri, supported a union effort and became the first workers with bargaining rights under the Alphabet Workers Union.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted his congratulations Friday after the Amazon vote, saying, “It’s going to be a shot in the arm for this country’s labor movement.”
Amazon has thrived without the presence of unions in its US operations for nearly three decades. But in recent years the company has drawn the ire of politicians and regulators for alleged anti-competitive behavior, under-tax payments and worker abuse.
This could be a time for the company to play nice and avoid a protracted battle, said Tom Kochan, a professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.
“I would now expect that following this first union victory, Amazon would have to reconsider its industrial relations strategy and negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement,” said Kochan, a labor and employment policy expert. “They will pour oil on the fire if they continue to wall in the negotiations, as they fought so energetically in the organization phase.”
CLOCK: Workers vote for union at Amazon NYC warehouse