Bulletins

Union organizers say Amazon illegally interfered in Alabama election

Union organizers say Amazon illegally interfered in Alabama election

The RWDSU filed charges against Amazon alleging the company illegally interfered with workers' rights during the Bessemer, Alabama union election.

Photo: Amazon

The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store union filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board Friday, alleging that Amazon interfered with the rights of workers in Bessemer, Alabama during the months-long union election process.

Amazon won the mail-in election vote by more than a 2:1 ratio earlier this month, and the RWDSU immediately said that it would be asking the NLRB to overturn the election results based on Amazon's actions. If the union succeeds, the NLRB could order another election.

The RWDSU listed 23 objections to Amazon's behavior in its filing, including Amazon's decision to push the United States Postal Service to install a mailbox outside the Bessemer facility to collect votes. Because the NLRB previously ruled that the election could not include an in-person election box, Amazon's efforts there could have directly contravened the labor judge's orders. Other charges include allegations that the company threatened workers with layoffs, facility closure and loss of pay and benefits.

The NLRB will decide whether and when to hold a hearing on the charges, and it could take months for the judge to reach a decision.

Anna Kramer

Anna Kramer is a reporter at Protocol (Twitter: @ anna_c_kramer, email: akramer@protocol.com), where she writes about labor and workplace issues. Prior to joining the team, she covered tech and small business for the San Francisco Chronicle and privacy for Bloomberg Law. She is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she studied International Relations and Arabic and wrote her senior thesis about surveillance tools and technological development in the Middle East.

amazonunionsnlrbamazon union
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