“Blow to Amazon as Alabama warehouse workers given go-ahead for union vote”, 05 February 2021

Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama will be allowed to conduct a union election by mail … in a major blow to the online retail giant’s intense anti-union efforts.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that union ballots for workers at Amazon’s Bessemer fulfillment center, located outside of Birmingham, can be mailed out on 8 February after Amazon raised objections to the vote taking place by mail.

… [I]n an appeal to the NLRB, attorneys for Amazon argued that a mail-in election would take too long and involve too many resources…

Amazon’s business has been thriving during the pandemic, but the company has been criticized for not implementing safety measures in its warehouse as the virus raged.

Efforts to unionize warehouse workers have popped up at fulfillment centers across the country, but the push to unionize in Alabama has so far been the most successful. If workers vote to unionize, it would be the first union of Amazon warehouse workers.

Leading up to the union vote, Amazon launched a campaign attempting to strongly discourage workers from voting to unionize. The company set up an anti-union website and sent texts to workers claiming that unionizing means “giving up the right to speak for yourself” and that the union will be taking “your money for nothing”.