Amazon Labor Union Is Set to File for Election Near Albany

Matt Day
·3 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. workers have filed a petition to hold a union election at a company warehouse near Albany, New York.

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The group, which is affiliated with the upstart Amazon Labor Union, on Tuesday asked the National Labor Relations Board for permission to hold a vote at the ALB1 facility, according to NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado.

Under NLRB rules, workers must gather the support of at least 30% of their co-workers to call such a vote. Heather Goodall, lead organizer of the effort, declined to disclose how many signatures she and her colleagues had collected but said she was confident they’d met the threshold. Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Goodall, who has worked at the facility since February, said Amazon was an abusive, intimidating employer, and that she and her coworkers were seeking higher wages, among other improvements to working conditions. “We need to stand against that and say we are no longer going to tolerate this abuse,” she said, adding that she and other ALU members were planning to hold a press conference at an NLRB regional office in nearby Albany on Wednesday.

The ALU won an historic victory at the New York City warehouse called JFK8 in April, only to lose a second election at a smaller facility across the street a few weeks later. At ALB1 in Schodack, near the state capital of Albany, Goodall and other organizers have been discussing unionizing with coworkers for months. She had contacted the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, before deciding in June that the group would join the Amazon Labor Union.

The Seattle-based company, which had managed to keep unions out of its US operations for more than a quarter-century, is fighting to get the JFK8 vote overturned. In a filing to the NLRB, Amazon said the agency repeatedly “failed to protect the integrity and neutrality of its procedures” by turning away voters. Both sides presented evidence before an NLRB official in Phoenix at hearings held in June and July. The labor board has yet to rule on Amazon’s objections. Unless Amazon can get the result tossed, it will have to start contract negotiations that potentially could hamper its ability to adjust work requirements and scheduling on the fly. ALU workers have said they’re seeking raises, as well as better benefits and working conditions.

The ALU’s leadership, spending much of their time defending their gains in court, paused two other planned union drives and has relied on homegrown union campaigns, including Goodall’s and one at a facility in Kentucky, to expand beyond New York City.

Meanwhile, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union has accused Amazon of labor law violations during a do-over vote in April at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Amazon filed its own objections to the conduct of the vote, arguing that a mail-ballot election was inappropriate and that union representatives surveilled workers and offered to take their ballots, among other claims.

Federal officials are slated to consider voter eligibility disputes and complaints about election conduct. The vote remains too close to call.

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