Amazon Faces Unionization Battle in Staten Island -- Update
Amazon Faces Unionization Battle in Staten Island -- Update
By Sebastian Herrera
A group of Amazon.com Inc. workers pushing to unionize a large company warehouse in New York won enough support to hold an election, the National Labor Relations Board said, opening a new battlefront between employees and the e-commerce giant.
Supporters of the nascent union, which calls itself the Amazon Labor Union, met the requirement for such a vote, the NLRB said Wednesday, which typically requires signatures from 30% of eligible employees at a facility. Organizers are aiming to unionize thousands of employees at a company warehouse in Staten Island.
An Amazon spokeswoman said the company is skeptical that the union has obtained enough legitimate signatures and is seeking to understand how the signatures were verified.
"We poured our blood, sweat and tears into this campaign, and this shows when we come together, we can do anything," Chris Smalls, a former Amazon employee leading the union, said Wednesday.
A federal hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16 to work out parameters for an election, according to the NLRB.
Amazon, in the coming months, also faces a vote to unionize at a facility in Bessemer, Ala., after a federal labor official in November found the company violated labor law during an election held at the site a year ago, a charge Amazon has denied. The NLRB this month said the new election will be held by mail, with ballots being sent to employees on Feb. 4. Voters will have almost two months to submit their ballots, with the vote count scheduled to start March 28.
The green light to move to a vote in New York comes after the Amazon Labor Union in November withdrew its first petition with the labor board after failing to achieve enough support. The group at first sought to unionize four Amazon facilities in Staten Island but shifted its focus to the largest center there after the failed effort to reach enough backing across several sites.
The union said it gathered more than 2,500 employee signatures before refiling its application for a unionization vote. Amazon said the Staten Island fulfillment center hosts about 6,000 workers.
Mr. Smalls, who once worked at the center, has been campaigning for months outside of the facility. The former employee has sought company policy changes around Covid-19 worker leave, break times and work pace requirements.
The Staten Island facility is one of Amazon's largest and most recognized sites. It serves the greater New York area and has long been a hub where workers have organized. In 2018, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union attempted to rally unionization support at the facility as part of broader labor pressure that surrounded the company in New York then. The RWDSU was among a group of critics at the heart of a fierce backlash when Amazon announced plans to locate a part of a second headquarters in New York City in late 2018. Amazon eventually nixed its headquarters plans in the city and the unionization effort by the RWDSU in Staten Island fizzled.
In 2020, Amazon workers held a walkout at the warehouse during a run of protests related to employee complaints about working conditions at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Amazon fired Mr. Smalls then for violating company rules related to social distancing, though Mr. Small contends he was terminated for organizing workers. Mr. Smalls has since become the de facto face of Amazon organizing, holding regular protests outside of the Staten Island center and even at a home of company founder Jeff Bezos.
Write to Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com
塞巴斯蒂安·埃雷拉(Sebastian Herrera)
美國國家勞資關係委員會(National Labor Relations Board)表示,一羣亞馬遜(Amazon.com Inc.)員工推動成立紐約一家大型公司倉庫的工會,贏得了舉行選舉的足夠支持,為員工和這家電商巨頭之間開闢了一條新的戰線。
全國勞資關係委員會(NLRB)週三表示,這個自稱為亞馬遜工會(Amazon Labor Union)的新生工會的支持者滿足了投票的要求。通常情況下,投票需要工廠30%的合格員工簽名。組織者的目標是在斯塔滕島的一個公司倉庫裏為數千名員工成立工會。
亞馬遜的一位女發言人説,該公司對工會是否獲得了足夠的合法簽名表示懷疑,並正在尋求瞭解這些簽名是如何得到驗證的。
“我們為這場運動傾注了我們的鮮血、汗水和淚水,這表明,當我們走到一起時,我們可以做任何事情,”領導工會的前亞馬遜員工克里斯·斯莫爾斯(Chris Smalls)週三表示。
據NLRB稱,聯邦聽證會定於2月16日舉行,以確定選舉參數。
在接下來的幾個月裏,亞馬遜還將面臨在阿拉巴馬州貝塞默(Bessemer)的一家工廠成立工會的投票。去年11月,一名聯邦勞工官員發現該公司在一年前的一次選舉中違反了勞動法,亞馬遜否認了這一指控。全國勞資關係委員會本月表示,新的選舉將通過郵寄方式舉行,選票將在2月4日寄給員工。選民將有近兩個月的時間提交選票,計票工作定於3月28日開始。
去年11月,亞馬遜工會(Amazon Labor Union)在未能獲得足夠的支持後,撤回了向勞工委員會提交的第一份請願書,之後就為在紐約進行投票開了綠燈。該組織最初試圖成立亞馬遜在斯塔滕島的四個設施的工會,但在試圖在幾個地點獲得足夠的支持失敗後,將重點轉移到了那裏最大的中心。
工會表示,在重新提交加入工會的投票申請之前,他們收集了2500多名員工的簽名。亞馬遜表示,斯塔滕島履約中心容納了約6000名工人。
斯莫爾斯曾在該中心工作,幾個月來一直在該中心外開展競選活動。這位前員工尋求圍繞新冠肺炎員工休假、休息時間和工作節奏要求改變公司政策。
斯塔滕島工廠是亞馬遜最大和最受認可的網站之一。它服務於大紐約地區,長期以來一直是工人組織起來的中心。2018年,零售、批發和百貨商店工會試圖在該設施爭取工會支持,這是當時圍繞該公司在紐約的更廣泛勞工壓力的一部分。當亞馬遜(Amazon)宣佈計劃於2018年末在紐約市設立第二個總部的一部分時,RWDSU是處於激烈反彈核心的一羣批評人士之一。亞馬遜最終取消了在該市的總部計劃,RWDSU在斯塔滕島成立工會的努力也以失敗告終。
2020年,在新冠肺炎大流行之初,亞馬遜員工在一系列抗議活動中在倉庫舉行了罷工,抗議活動與員工對工作條件的抱怨有關。當時,亞馬遜解僱了斯莫爾斯,理由是他違反了與社交距離相關的公司規定,不過斯莫爾辯稱,他是因為組織工人而被解僱的。自那以後,斯莫爾斯已經成為亞馬遜組織的事實上的代言人,他定期在斯塔滕島中心外舉行抗議活動,甚至在公司創始人傑夫·貝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)的家中舉行抗議活動。
寫信給Sebastian Herrera,電子郵件:Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com
譯文內容由第三人軟體翻譯。
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