Will they or won’t they?
That’s the question facing online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) as votes start to be counted on whether employees will form a union at the company’s sprawling Alabama fulfillment center.
Many observers say the union vote at America’s second-largest private employer could have far reaching implications for the labour movement.
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board will sift through ballots sent to more than 5,800 workers at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama-based warehouse as part of a prolonged process expected to last days and spark legal challenges.
Tallying votes might not begin until later this week or next, after both Amazon and the union check the eligibility of ballots cast. Subsequent procedures and objections could further forestall a certified result of the union vote.
Amazon has aggressively discouraged attempts by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) to become the first ever to organize one of the online retail giant’s facilities in the U.S.
A union victory would leave Amazon, second only to Walmart (NYSE:WMT) with more than 800,000 employees nationwide, vulnerable to additional organizing efforts and represent a watershed moment for the U.S. labour movement.
The union drive has drawn significant attention from elected officials in Washington, D.C. U.S. President Joe Biden has defended workers’ rights to form unions free from intimidation and pointed to voting in Alabama while not specifically mentioning Amazon.
A congressional delegation visited Bessemer earlier in March and Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Democrat, descended on the area last Friday to hold a rally with workers and support the organizing push.
Amazon has mounted its own campaign, sending text messages urging current and former workers to vote against forming a union and telling them that they might sacrifice certain benefits if the push succeeds, a notion the union has disputed.
