Voting begins in second Amazon union election on Staten Island : NPR

Can an upstart, impartial union phase a repeat victory?

That’s the issue on Staten Island this 7 days as a lot more Amazon warehouse employees vote on no matter if to be part of the Amazon Labor Union.

About 1,500 staff who operate in a facility sorting offers for shipping are eligible to vote in the election. Voting, which is getting area in particular person beneath a tent exterior the warehouse, began at 4:30 a.m. on Monday and concludes at 11 p.m. on Friday.

The election comes fewer than a month just after the Amazon Labor Union gained a historic victory, unionizing the first Amazon warehouse in the U.S. — a huge facility throughout the road where by some 8,300 staff decide and deal up merchandise for purchaser orders. Led by previous and existing Amazon staff, the Amazon Labor Union completed what effectively-proven unions with deep pockets experienced lengthy established their sights on but unsuccessful to attain.

The Amazon Labor Union is calling for for a longer period breaks, improved health and fitness and protection policy, and raises, amongst other requires. In Amazon warehouses, the perform is rapid-paced and bodily demanding, with employees lifting deals as heavy as 50 lbs.

In the weeks considering that the union’s gain, union president Chris Smalls states he is heard from workers at extra than a hundred other Amazon amenities, expressing fascination in unionizing.

In the meantime, Amazon carries on to struggle back, shelling out thousands and thousands of bucks on anti-union consultants and filing objections in the election it lost.

Amazon suggests the National Labor Relations Board’s regional workplace in Brooklyn, which oversaw the election, favored the union and facilitated its victory. The enterprise also raised objections to some of the Amazon Labor Union’s steps, charging that organizers harassed and threatened staff who weren’t supporting the union and handed out marijuana to employees in return for their support. In point, the union organizers have spoken overtly about delivering staff with marijuana, but not as a bribe.

A listening to will be held to look at these objections at a future date.

In the meantime, the union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, however hangs in the equilibrium, with hundreds of contested ballots unresolved. Both Amazon and the Amazon Labor Union have submitted objections in that election.

And a petition for a union election at a 200-person Amazon facility in Bayonne, New Jersey, was withdrawn just times right after it was filed. The union powering the petition, Local 713 Intercontinental Brotherhood of Trade Union, has no call identify or amount on its web site. Given that 2012, two of its leaders have been indicted on corruption chargers. A attorney for the union declined more remark on the election petition or its withdrawal.