A U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative judge ordered a third union vote at an Amazon (AMZN) warehouse in Alabama, ruling that the company had once again engaged in a series of illegal actions, U.S. Stock Investment Network has learned. Prevent the formation of trade unions.
NLRB Administrative Law Judge Michael Silverstein said on Tuesday that Amazon had removed union literature from break rooms and restrooms ahead of the 2022 vote at its Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse, falsely accusing pro-union workers of harassing co-workers and unlawfully threatening them. Close the warehouse if workers vote to unionize.
The results of the vote held at the warehouse known as BHM1 were never finalized, with ballots seized following legal challenges from both sides, so the results are unclear.
The vote comes after NLRB officials overturned the results of a 2021 vote in which workers voted 2-1 against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). The official found that Amazon violated federal labor laws by encouraging workers to drop off ballots in mailboxes it installed at warehouses and plastered with anti-union slogans.
Silverstein said Tuesday that “Amazon is preventing a fair vote from being held, and this behavior requires the 2022 mail-in election to be put on hold.”
The judge also rejected without explanation Amazon’s argument that the NLRB’s structure was unconstitutional, while noting that “federal courts may address these issues at some point in the future.”
Amazon also made the allegations in a lawsuit against the NLRB over a union vote at a New York City warehouse, which so far is the company’s only unionized facility in the United States. About 20 other companies have also attacked the NLRB’s structure in pending cases.
Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said in a statement that the decision was “wrong on both facts and law” and that the company planned to appeal.
“Our team at BHM1 has made it clear twice that they do not want a union,” Paradis said. “It is disappointing that the NLRB and RWDSU have been trying to force a third vote instead of accepting the facts and the wishes of our team members.”
RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum criticized Silverstein’s decision to deny additional remedies requested by the union, including a 30-minute meeting at the warehouse before the next vote and a requirement that Amazon train managers and supervisors on workers’ legal rights.
Appelbaum said there is “no reason to expect a different outcome on the third ballot unless additional remedies are in place.”
In addition to losing the 2021 vote in Alabama, the union also lost votes at another warehouse in New York City and at an Amazon warehouse near Albany, New York.
Information source: US stock investment network TradesMax.com US stock big data StockWe.com
