The public vote-counting process for the Amazon warehouse workers' union election in Bessemer, Alabama will begin today or Friday, after Amazon and the union spent eight days reviewing the validity of each ballot with the National Labor Relations Board.
3,215 ballots were submitted to the NLRB during the mail-in union election, out of more than 5,800 workers who were eligible to vote as part of the union bargaining unit, according to information provided by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store union, the national group leading the worker organizing. Amazon and the RWDSU challenged the validity of hundreds of ballots during the last week of review, and RWDSU spokesperson Chelsea Connor said in a press statement that most of the contested ballots were challenged by Amazon.
The contested ballots will be reviewed by the NLRB after the public vote counting process. If there are enough contested ballots to affect the election after the public vote count, there may be no result until the NLRB can review each challenged ballot.
The public vote count will begin after the NLRB has opened and extracted the ballots, which the RWDSU expects will begin Thursday morning. If other issues arise when the ballots have been extracted, they could also change the final vote results or delay an official conclusion.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE