Amazon workers authorize strike at company’s first unionized warehouse

Thousands of Amazon workers at the company the first ever unionized The warehouse voted Friday to authorize a strike, claiming the tech giant refused to recognize the union and negotiate a contract at the New York facility.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that represents about 5,500 warehouse workers, said Amazon risked a strike if it did not begin negotiations by Sunday.

“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they’ve earned,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien told ABC News in a statement. “If these white-collar criminals want to continue breaking the law, they’d better prepare for a fight.”

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A strike authorization vote gives union leadership the ability to call a work stoppage if deemed necessary. But voting does not guarantee that there will be a strike.

The union victory that captured the title at Amazon’s Staten Island, New York facility in 2022 accelerated a surge of labor organizing that took place nationwide during the pandemic.

After the union’s victory, however, Amazon filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, trying to overturn the outcome, including allegations that NLRB officials showed a favorable bias toward workers and that union leaders bribed colleagues in an effort to win their support.

So far, those legal challenges by Amazon have failed to overturn the union’s win. A few months after the victory, an NLRB hearing officer recommended that the vote stand. Soon after, the NLRB officially certified the union representing workers at the facility, placing Amazon under a legal obligation to bargain in good faith. Amazon has appealed the ruling.

The workers argued that the company’s legal challenge amounted to an illegal effort to delay contract negotiations.

PHOTO: Workers select products during Cyber ​​Monday at Amazon's fulfillment center December 2, 2024 in Robbinsville, NJ (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)PHOTO: Workers select products during Cyber ​​Monday at Amazon's fulfillment center December 2, 2024 in Robbinsville, NJ (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

PHOTO: Workers select products during Cyber ​​Monday at Amazon’s fulfillment center December 2, 2024 in Robbinsville, NJ (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Amazon did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. In an earlier statement to ABC News, Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hards said the company respects workers’ right to unionize, but disputes the election results at the Staten Island warehouse, also known as JFK8.

“Our employees have a choice whether or not to join a union,” Hards said. “They always did.”

“We strongly disagree with the outcome, and as we demonstrated throughout the JFK8 Objection Hearing with dozens of witnesses and hundreds of pages of documents, both the NLRB and the ALU improperly influenced the outcome of the election and we do not believe they represent what they represent. most of our team wants,” she added.

Workers from the previous unit said a union contract should include a minimum wage of $30 an hour and enhanced safety protections.

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A delay is typical for a first union contract, but the passage of time in this case extended beyond the norm.

The average length of time before a new union signs its first contract is 465 days, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis in 2022. It has been nearly 990 days since Amazon workers in New York voted to unionize the facility.

On Friday, the Teamsters said workers at a second facility in Queens also voted to authorize a strike.

“It’s hard to drive for Amazon,” Luc Rene, a worker at the Queens facility, said in a statement. “What’s even harder is fighting a mega-corporation that constantly breaks the law and games the system. But we will not give up”.

Amazon workers authorize strike at company’s first unionized warehouse originally appeared on abcnews.go.com