Amazon gears up for second union vote

Ballots are being mailed to employees of Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., location starting Friday, kicking off the second union election in as many years at the warehouse.

The e-commerce giant decisively won the first round of voting, with 1,798 employees voting not to unionize out of 2,536 ballots counted.

But the union that would represent the Bessemer workers in the event of victory, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), swiftly challenged that result, alleging that Amazon illegally influenced the election.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ultimately sided with the union, concluding that Amazon interfered in the vote by pushing for a mailbox to be installed on premises and improperly polling support. The agency scheduled a new vote and Amazon decided not to file a challenge, though the company publicly disagreed with the justification.

Despite the victory of getting a second election, labor experts and Amazon critics are concerned that the company will be able to employ many of the same anti-union tactics it did the first time around without fear of punishment.

Lawmakers have sought to counter such tactics with the PRO Act, a labor bill aimed at correcting the imbalanced power of employers in the unionization process. But after passing through the House with five Republican votes last spring, the bill has been unable to reach the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

The legislation would have prohibited Amazon from holding highly effective captive-audience meetings with staff, given the union a better shot at securing its much smaller proposed bargaining unit and ratcheted up the consequences of unlawful interference.