File: The Amazon distribution center in Garner, N.C. opened in August 2020. Across 4 floors, the warehouse covers 2 million square feet.
Scott Sharpe | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
Amazon staff at a facility near Raleigh, North Carolina, overwhelmingly voted against unionizing on Saturday.
Of the three,276 ballots solid, there have been 2,447 votes opposing the union and 829 in favor, based on the National Labor Relations Board. There have been 77 challenged ballots, a spot that is too narrow to vary the final result of the election. The outcomes still should be certified by the NLRB.
The election at the power, named RDU1 and positioned within the suburb of Garner, got here after organizers with the upstart Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) campaigned on the warehouse for the past three years. The ability employs roughly 4,700 staff.
CAUSE said in a press release that the election results were a “results of Amazon’s willingness to interrupt the law.”
“Amazon’s relentless and illegal efforts to intimidate us prove that this company is afraid of staff coming together to say our power,” the group said. “Amazon might imagine it’s above the law, but we is not going to accept a system that enables billionaires and corporations to play by a unique algorithm.”
Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hards denied that the corporate broke the law or interfered with the election.
“We’re glad that our team in Garner was capable of have their voices heard, and that they selected to maintain a direct relationship with Amazon,” Hards said in a press release. “We sit up for continuing to make this an ideal place to work together, and to supporting our teammates as they construct their futures with us.”
Amazon, the nation’s second-largest private employer, has long sought to maintain unions out of its ranks. The strategy succeeded within the U.S. until 2022, when staff at a Staten Island warehouse voted to hitch the Amazon Labor Union. Last month, staff at a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia voted to hitch the United Food and Industrial Employees union.
Amazon responded to the Garner union drive with a barrage of anti-union messages within the warehouse, on an internet site, and sent through its AtoZ app to employees. A pacesetter of the warehouse urged employees to “vote no,” saying a union “can get in the best way of how we work together.” The corporate described CAUSE as an “outside party” that is “claiming to be a union.”
Amazon has previously said its employees can select whether or not to hitch a union, and that it speaks “openly, candidly and respectfully about these topics” in order that they’ll “make an informed decision.”
CAUSE was founded in 2022 by RDU1 employees Mary Hill and Rev. Ryan Brown to voice concerns in regards to the company’s response to the Covid pandemic, which they viewed as inadequate. The group sought to prepare RDU1 to spice up wages and secure longer breaks.
Starting pay at RDU1 is $18.50 an hour. CAUSE has pushed to barter for wages of $30 an hour.
In its statement on Saturday, CAUSE said it intended to proceed organizing at RDU1 “because over half of Amazon employees are still battling food and housing insecurity.”
Labor groups have looked beyond NLRB elections in an try and gain a union foothold at Amazon. They’ve assisted employees with filing unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB against Amazon, accusing the corporate of violating labor laws.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters helped coordinate a picket effort at nine Amazon facilities in December. Amazon said the walkout had no impact on its operations.
The Teamsters union has said it represents 9,000 Amazon staff across the country, although the corporate has refused to acknowledge the union and bargain with leadership.
Unions have enjoyed increasing support across the country, with 67% of Americans saying they approve of labor unions, based on Gallup. But that hasn’t translated into higher membership rates. Union membership within the private sector declined barely to five.9% in 2024, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
North Carolina had the bottom union membership rate within the country last yr, with only 2.4% of staff within the state represented, based on the BLS.
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