The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) confirmed on Jan. 26 that workers at a Staten Island Amazon
According to NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado, the Amazon Labor Union has "reached a sufficient showing of interest" at the New York Amazon warehouse, meaning the group has signatures from at least 30% of eligible worker voters.
"The momentum is with us, the energy is with us, the workers are excited," head of the Amazon Labor Union and former Amazon employee Chris Smalls told reporters. "We know it's a long battle ahead of us, but to get over this hump, the show of interest, it's definitely historic for us."
The path to unionization is being paved by Amazon organizers in Bessemer, AL, where the first Amazon unionization vote in the U.S. was held last year. Organizers lost that vote, but the NLRB soon called for a second election due to alleged interference by Amazon. The second vote will begin on a mail-in basis on Feb. 4.
Staten Island might have the signatures they need, but a vote won't be held for some time. Amazon gets a chance to contest the claim that the Union has sufficient interest, and an NLRB hearing on the warehouse vote is set to be held on Feb. 16.
For its part, Amazon has questioned the NLRB's determination that the Amazon Workers Union has sufficient interest to hold an election.
According to Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel, the company is "skeptical that organizers had a sufficient number of legitimate signatures and we're seeking to understand how these signatures were verified."
Smalls stated that the NLRB used Amazon payroll to verify the signatures in the December petition.
Nantel specifically pointed to the initial petition filed by the Union in October as proof that the NLRB's judgment is incorrect. That petition was withdrawn in November due to insufficient interest. The Union's petition was successfully re-filed in December.
"Our employees have always had a choice of whether or not to join a union, and as we saw just a few months ago, the vast majority of our team in Staten Island did not support the ALU," Nantel said.
Staten Island warehouse workers began to push back against Amazon at the start of the pandemic. Workers staged a walkout due to the company's alleged improper handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was during that 2020 protest that Chris Smalls was fired. Amazon claims he was fired for violating COVID-19 protocols, but Smalls argues that he was fired as retaliation for voicing his concerns over workplace conditions.
