Amazon Election
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The votes are being counted at the Amazon facilities in Alabama and Staten Island to see if those workers want to form a union. I talked to a reporter a Yahoo Finance about this yesterday.
Labor experts acknowledged the significance of a potential victory at the nation’s second-largest employer, but cautioned that the bottomless resources and anti-union messaging of a corporate giant like Amazon make the organizing drive a difficult feat.
“A win is potentially world-changing,” says Erik Loomis, a labor historian and professor at the University of Rhode Island. “It would set a precedent that there is a big demand out there to organize this new economy.”
The election at Amazon coincides with a nationwide wave of organizing. Starbucks workers in recent months have unionized nine stores, with more likely to come as over 100 stores across more than 25 states have filed for union elections; and employees at Disney captured attention last week with a walkout to protest the company’s posture toward a controversial Florida law.
For its part, Amazon opposes the union drive, questioning the competence of the ALU and telling workers that a labor organization would bring onerous dues payments.
What’s interesting here is that the early vote counting in Staten Island is surprisingly strong for the union.
UPDATE: with 3/10 boxes fully counted @amazonlabor is currently winnings its elections 717-581, or a net of 136 votes.
No idea how many total ballots there are, i’d estimate upwards of 3,500 total. Unknown number of challenged ballots.
there have been 5 voided ballots.
— Daily Union Elections (@UnionElections) March 31, 2022
We’ll see. There’s a long ways to go. But at least this is a good start. Even getting close to a victory, especially given this independent union strategy, would lay the groundwork for future organizing.