NEW YORK (HPD) — Amazon workers at an upstate New York warehouse overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to create a union, marking a second defeat for the union group that has tried to bring the company into the fold. negotiating table since his historic victory earlier this year.
Warehouse workers in the town of Schodack, near Albany, cast 406 votes (nearly 66%) against the union, giving the company enough support to stand up to the labor group. According to the National Labor Relations Board, 206 workers (33.6%) voted for the fledgling union made up of current and former Amazon workers.
The 31 ballots that were challenged by Amazon or the union were not enough to influence the final result. The agency said 918 employees had the right to vote.
This was the fourth union election at an Amazon warehouse this year and the third run by the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). The new group scored an upset victory in April at a company warehouse on Staten Island, but suffered a loss soon after at another facility nearby. Union elections in Alabama, led by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, remain too close for a winner.
Amazon has been trying to undo ALU’s sole victory, filing more than two dozen challenges to the election and seeking a repeat vote. Last month, a federal labor official concluded that the union should be certified as a warehouse bargaining representative.
Amazon, which has not recognized the union, has said it intends to appeal the decision and CEO Andy Jassy has also said the company could take the case to federal court.
ALU leaders say they are focused on seeking more local elections and pressuring Amazon to negotiate a contract at the facility that voted to unionize. Experts say a union victory at the Schodack warehouse — near one of the most unionized metro areas in the country, according to Unionstats.com — would offer the group more clout and a chance to show that its previous victory was not unique.