Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama to vote on unionization

Workers at Amazon's warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama are set to soon begin voting on whether to form a union. The workers will cast their votes again, a year after the large unionization effort failed amidst controversy over the company's tactics. The National Labor Relations Board announced on Tuesday that ballots will be mailed on February 4 and the votes will be counted, beginning March 28. 

Last year, Amazon workers overwhelmingly rejected a unionization effort at the warehouse but the NLRB called a revote after they found that the e-commerce giant improperly interfered in the election. An official from the NLRB cited that Amazon placed an unmarked U.S. Postal Service mailbox in front of the warehouse just after the voting began. The official wrote that Amazon essentially [hijacked] the process and gave a strong impression that it controlled the process." 

The unionization effort was rejected by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union last year and this was a major blow to the efforts to organize Amazon, which is the second-largest private employer in the US. It was the first major effort of its kind in years and it drew national attention from including President Biden who tweeted a video saying workers should be able to make their decisions without facing pressure from the company. 

Source: The Washington Post