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)
美国国家劳资关系委员会(National Labor Relations Board)表示,一群亚马逊(Amazon.com Inc.)员工推动成立纽约一家大型公司仓库的工会,赢得了举行选举的足够支持,为员工和这家电商巨头之间开辟了一条新的战线。
全国劳资关系委员会(NLRB)周三表示,这个自称为亚马逊工会(Amazon Labor Union)的新生工会的支持者满足了投票的要求。通常情况下,投票需要工厂30%的合格员工签名。组织者的目标是在斯塔滕岛的一个公司仓库里为数千名员工成立工会。
亚马逊的一位女发言人说,该公司对工会是否获得了足够的合法签名表示怀疑,并正在寻求了解这些签名是如何得到验证的。
“我们为这场运动倾注了我们的鲜血、汗水和泪水,这表明,当我们走到一起时,我们可以做任何事情,”领导工会的前亚马逊员工克里斯·斯莫尔斯(Chris Smalls)周三表示。
据NLRB称,联邦听证会定于2月16日举行,以确定选举参数。
在接下来的几个月里,亚马逊还将面临在阿拉巴马州贝塞默(Bessemer)的一家工厂成立工会的投票。去年11月,一名联邦劳工官员发现该公司在一年前的一次选举中违反了劳动法,亚马逊否认了这一指控。全国劳资关系委员会本月表示,新的选举将通过邮寄方式举行,选票将在2月4日寄给员工。选民将有近两个月的时间提交选票,计票工作定于3月28日开始。
去年11月,亚马逊工会(Amazon Labor Union)在未能获得足够的支持后,撤回了向劳工委员会提交的第一份请愿书,之后就为在纽约进行投票开了绿灯。该组织最初试图成立亚马逊在斯塔滕岛的四个设施的工会,但在试图在几个地点获得足够的支持失败后,将重点转移到了那里最大的中心。
工会表示,在重新提交加入工会的投票申请之前,他们收集了2500多名员工的签名。亚马逊表示,斯塔滕岛履约中心容纳了约6000名工人。
斯莫尔斯曾在该中心工作,几个月来一直在该中心外开展竞选活动。这位前员工寻求围绕新冠肺炎员工休假、休息时间和工作节奏要求改变公司政策。
斯塔滕岛工厂是亚马逊最大和最受认可的网站之一。它服务于大纽约地区,长期以来一直是工人组织起来的中心。2018年,零售、批发和百货商店工会试图在该设施争取工会支持,这是当时围绕该公司在纽约的更广泛劳工压力的一部分。当亚马逊(Amazon)宣布计划于2018年末在纽约市设立第二个总部的一部分时,RWDSU是处于激烈反弹核心的一群批评人士之一。亚马逊最终取消了在该市的总部计划,RWDSU在斯塔滕岛成立工会的努力也以失败告终。
2020年,在新冠肺炎大流行之初,亚马逊员工在一系列抗议活动中在仓库举行了罢工,抗议活动与员工对工作条件的抱怨有关。当时,亚马逊解雇了斯莫尔斯,理由是他违反了与社交距离相关的公司规定,不过斯莫尔辩称,他是因为组织工人而被解雇的。自那以后,斯莫尔斯已经成为亚马逊组织的事实上的代言人,他定期在斯塔滕岛中心外举行抗议活动,甚至在公司创始人杰夫·贝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)的家中举行抗议活动。
写信给Sebastian Herrera,电子邮件:Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com