Axios reports that Amazon warehouse employees at a facility near Albany, New York, have voted 406-206 not to join the Amazon Labor Union, a move that "deals a major blow" or organized labor efforts at the company.
Some context from the story:
"More than 900 workers were eligible to vote at the Albany warehouse, which is known as ALB1.
"The union was started by former Amazon worker Christian Smalls and officially formed after workers at a Staten Island warehouse unionized in April — a landmark moment for organized labor and for the e-commerce behemoth, which has resisted unionization efforts in its U.S. operations.
"It was the second unsuccessful unionization push for the Amazon Labor Union, after a separate Staten Island Amazon warehouse also voted against unionizing in May."
- KC's View:
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"Major blow," perhaps, but hardly the end of the story.
Probes into the company's actions are being conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and there almost certainly will continue to be union votes at warehouses around the country. There have been so many challenged ballots and legal questions raised about a second vote at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, that they haven't declared a winner yet.
But as the Axios story points out, Amazon may have a bigger problem that union votes: "The company's biggest challenge may be finding enough bodies to do all the work, as its total U.S. workforce passed the 1 million mark this year." Amazon may find that it has to offer workers even more than the unions are calling for simply to attract enough people to join the company.
