Amazon is again asking the National Labor Relations Board to direct thousands of warehouse employees at its Alabama facility to cast ballots in person.
Amazon Demands Face-to-Face Milestone Union Voting
On Thursday, the e-commerce giant filed a motion to delay the union election, which is scheduled to start on February 8, so that the NLRB can reconsider its decision to hold the election by mail over almost two months rather than via an in-person event.
The board said in its ruling, "A mail ballot election will face employees who can not enter the voting location for health reasons or due to positive COVID tests." "In addition, during the current health crisis, the mail ballot election will protect the health and safety of voters, agency personnel, representatives and the public during the current health crisis."
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On January 21, Amazon filed a petition that aims to delay the election to take place in person, with no mail votes.
Amazon said in a filing that the decision of the board doesn't define what constitutes an outbreak. The company added that the acting regional director of the board "reached the remarkable conclusion that any level of employee infection or potential infection counts as a 'outbreak.'"
Amazon asked the board to reconsider its decision to hold a mail-in referendum, claiming that the board did not adequately describe what an "outbreak of COVID-19" is. In favor of a mail-in election, the Bessemer employees quoted the outbreak in Alabama.
The workers aspire to become the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Claiming that the union members will provide better working conditions makes it more difficult for Amazon to fire them unfairly and offer the opportunity to file lawsuits about write-ups or terminations.
Amazon's two filings ask the NLRB's full board to reconsider the decision on in-person voting and to stay an election until the matter is resolved. After objections arose in a union election for nurses at a Michigan hospital, the board created the mail-in voting guidelines in November.
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Amazon said that 2.88 percent of Amazon's 7,575 staff and third-party personnel at the facility - or 218 individuals - tested positive at its Bessemer facility over the 14 days ending on January 7. The thought that this would be considered an epidemic was dismissed by Amazon.
In last week's NLRB ruling, Henderson noted that as of January 11, Jefferson County, where the facility is located, had a positive rate of more than 17 percent, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In November, the NLRB said that if the number of reported cases in the county increases, or if it is 5 percent or higher, mail-in elections will "normally be appropriate" Amazon claimed in its filing that this decision "reflected assumptions developed comparatively earlier in the pandemic."
The union drive comes as the working conditions in Amazon's warehouse during the pandemic have come under heightened scrutiny. To meet a rise in demand, the organization has employed hundreds of thousands of employees globally. After the start of the pandemic, several factory employees have spoken out about safety issues.
