A labor drive at an Amazon (AMZN) warehouse on Staten Island narrowly won a historic union election on Friday, establishing the first U.S. union in the company's 28-year history and intensifying a nationwide surge of organizing across major companies like Starbucks (SBUX) and Disney (DIS).
As of early Friday afternoon, the union was poised for victory with a margin of nearly 500 votes. The National Labor Relations board said on Friday that the union and Amazon had challenged 66 ballots, suggesting that the margin of victory would exceed the number of challenged ballots and conclude the election without further dispute.
After decades of decline for U.S. unions, the improbable victory carried out by a crowdfunded, independent union at the nation's second largest employer serves as a wake-up call for the labor movement as well as a potential blueprint for making inroads into the rapidly growing tech sector and its massive corporations.
Meanwhile, the outcome deals a significant blow to Amazon, exposing the limitations of the e-commerce giant's aggressive anti-union opposition and affirming years-long concern over working conditions at the company's vast warehouse network.
"A win is potentially world-changing," Erik Loomis, a labor historian and professor at the University of Rhode Island, told Yahoo Finance prior to the vote. "It would set a precedent that there is a big demand out there to organize this new economy."
Amazon released a statement on Friday afternoon expressing their disapproval with the results and potential plans to challenge them. In the statement, the company alleged misconduct on the part of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that carried out the election.
"We’re disappointed with the outcome of the election in Staten Island because we believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees," the company said.
"We’re evaluating our options, including filing objections based on the inappropriate and undue influence by the NLRB that we and others (including the National Retail Federation and U.S. Chamber of Commerce) witnessed in this election," Amazon added.
The 6,000-employee Staten Island warehouse marks the second site of a union election among a large group of Amazon warehouse workers, arriving roughly one year after the overwhelming defeat of a labor drive at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.
A federal agency later nullified those results, ruling that Amazon had illegally interfered; the counting of ballots in a revote at the warehouse in Bessemer also took place on Thursday. The union finished with 875 "yes" votes versus 993 "no" votes, suggesting the union maybe headed for a narrow defeat at the facility. But a final result depends on 416 challenged ballots, which may not be tallied for weeks.
The union drive on Staten Island was conducted by the Amazon Labor Union, an independent labor organization led by a former warehouse worker at the Amazon facility on Staten Island, Chris Smalls.
Prior to the vote, Smalls voiced optimism about the potential for a victory at the Staten Island facility, saying workers were fed up with the company’s grueling demands, lack of safety precautions, and aggressive union-busting campaign. Plus, the central role played by workers in ALU has helped the union win the trust of employees, he said.
The union victory at Amazon coincides with a nationwide wave of organizing. Starbucks workers in recent months have unionized nine stores, with more likely to come as over 100 stores across more than 25 states have filed for union elections; and employees at Disney captured attention last week with a walkout to protest the company's posture toward a controversial Florida law.
For its part, Amazon opposed the union drive, questioning the competence of the ALU and telling workers that a labor organization would bring onerous dues payments.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel previously told Yahoo Finance the company eagerly awaited the results of this week's union elections: “We look forward to having our employees’ voices heard. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
The union drive on Staten Island emerged from an escalation in worker organizing at Amazon that converged with the COVID-19 pandemic, which drove record sales for the e-commerce giant but exposed some of its warehouse employees to the potentially lethal virus.
Smalls, who was fired from his Staten Island warehouse job in March 2021, the same day he participated in a walkout, led a series of protests against the company before launching the union campaign in May of last year.
Grievances voiced by Amazon workers on Staten Island resembled those made by warehouse employees at the company for years. Workers say they've endured grueling and dangerous conditions enforced by digital devices that track them every minute. Some workers also say these devices fuel high turnover as the company fires employees who fail to keep up with performance quotas.
"The conditions are unsafe at the facility," says Derrick Palmer, a warehouse worker on Staten Island who voted "yes" and helped organize coworkers. "A lot of the workers feel like they're disposable."
Nantel, the Amazon spokesperson, emphasized the company's commitment to worker safety in a statement to Yahoo Finance prior to the union election results: “The safety and well-being of our employees is always a top priority. We recognize that helping employees stay safe in physical roles takes a lot of focus and investment, which is why we’re investing hundreds of millions in safety in many different ways."
"Like most companies, we have performance expectations for all our employees," the statement continues. "When setting those expectations, we take into account things like time in role, experience and their safety and well-being. We support people who are not performing to the levels expected with dedicated coaching to help them improve.”
Palmer, the worker at the Staten Island facility, said a union would protect employees from firings and give them an advocate at the workplace.
"If you have a union in place, that secures your job," he said. "Also, right now there's no voice for workers — that's where we come in."
This article was updated with a statement from Amazon.
Max Zahn is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Find him on twitter @MaxZahn_.
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