Judge Orders Another Amazon Union Election In Alabama

A judge at the federal labor board has ordered a do-over union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, finding that the online retail giant broke the law in ways that spoiled a vote by workers in 2022.

The new election would be the third one held at the facility — the previous vote itself was a do-over, after a labor board official set aside the results of the initial election, in 2021, due to Amazon’s allegedly illegal conduct.

In a decision issued Tuesday at the National Labor Relations Board, Administrative Law Judge Michael Silverstein ruled that Amazon illegally interrogated employees about the union, confiscated union materials from bathrooms and break rooms, surveilled pro-union employees and told them the warehouse would close if they organized.

Workers at the warehouse had voted 993 to 875 against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in the 2022 election, though that tally does not include hundreds of challenged ballots that haven’t been opened.

Silverstein dismissed most of the union’s allegations against Amazon, but ruled that the violations the company did commit during the second organizing campaign “prevented the holding of a fair election” and warranted tossing out the results.

The NLRB is the agency responsible for overseeing union elections and investigating union-busting allegations. Either party to the Bessemer case can appeal Silverstein’s decision to the five-member board in Washington, D.C., for review before a new election is scheduled.

Mary Kate Paradis, an Amazon spokesperson, said the company plans to appeal.

“Our team at BHM1 has already made their choice clear, twice that they don’t want a Union,” Paradis said in an email. “This decision is wrong on the facts and the law. It’s disappointing that the NLRB and RWDSU keep trying to force a third vote instead of accepting the facts and the will of our team members.”

The RWDSU said that it would appeal the ruling, even though the judge determined Amazon broke the law.

“We never doubted that Amazon was going to take every opportunity, legal or not, to deny its employees at its Bessemer warehouse a free and fair election,” Stuart Appelbaum, the RWDSU’s president, said in a statement.

But Appelbaum went on to say that, given Amazon’s conduct, Silverstein should have granted the union’s request for special remedies ― including on-site access to the warehouse to make the case for unionization ― instead of simply ordering another rerun vote.

“There is no reason to expect a different result in a third election – unless there are additional remedies,” Appelbaum said. “Otherwise, Amazon will continue repeating its past behavior and the Board will continue ordering new elections.”

He added that “labor law is stunningly broken in this country.”

The election held in 2021 was the first warehouse-wide union vote at one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers, with an initial tally showing 1,798 in favor of the union and 738 against. The RWDSU closed the gap significantly in the 2022 do-over election, and possibly won. More than 300 other ballots have not been opened after either the union or the company challenged the voters’ eligibility.

Unions have struggled for years to organize Amazon’s workforce as the company has grown into one of the most powerful in the world. The only unionized Amazon fulfillment center in the U.S. is JFK8 in Staten Island, New York, where workers voted to join the newly formed Amazon Labor Union in 2022.

The ALU affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters earlier in 2024 and is still trying to negotiate a first contract more than two years after winning its election. Amazon has not bargained with the union or recognized it as their employees’ representative.

This story has been updated with comment from Amazon, and to note that the results of the election are still not clear due to challenged ballots.