Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, have lost their bid to seek union representation in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election, in what would have been the first of the company’s U.S. facilities to unionize.
Unfortunately, despite a strong campaign led by the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (of which the Amazon workers would’ve become members), the election results swayed in Amazon’s favor on April 9, with a current tally of 738 votes for unionizing and 1,798 against it.
On Friday morning, the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union filed a legal challenge with the NLRB to contest the results, alleging that Amazon, in the weeks leading up to the election, had created an “atmosphere of confusion, coercion, and/or fear” in order to dissuade workers from unionizing. By peppering the Bessemer facility with anti-union messaging (such as posters with the slogan “Do it without dues”), the union argued, Amazon was able to tilt the vote.
Read more at The Progressive.