Workers at a new Amazon facility in Bessemer, Ala., filed a notice with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election at a time when the company's warehouse employees around the world have raised concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
“To file the NLRB notice, the union needed to have cards authorizing the RWDSU to represent workers in collective bargaining signed by at least 30 percent of the proposed negotiating unit, said Rebecca Givan, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University. But she noted that very few unions would file for a union vote without “a very strong majority” of cards signed, or support at the Alabama warehouse from well over 750 workers.
And it’s particularly notable that the effort is in Alabama, a state that is seen as hostile to organized labor, Givan said.
“That this is happening in a deeply anti-union state is really bold,” Givan said.
Amazon can contest the size and composition of the proposed bargaining unit. And it can raise questions over the authorization cards. Givan anticipates Amazon will use all the tools at its disposal to beat back the union drive.”
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