After a grassroots union's victory over Amazon during a vote in Staten Island, N.Y., some tough decisions lie ahead for the company, including how it will respond to the conditions that allegedly led to the unionization vote. Safety, higher wages, more paid breaks and more vacation all were at issue.
'Extremely Significant' Win
"The union's success is indeed extremely significant," said Dan Altchek, an attorney with Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr in Baltimore and New York City.
Of the approximately 8,000 employees at Staten Island's JFK8 Amazon warehouse who were eligible to vote, more than 5,000 cast ballots, he noted.
"A victory for the union among a group that large cannot be dismissed as inconsequential," Altchek said. "Other Amazon employees have seen that an organizing drive—one without financial or other material support from any established labor union, it appears—can withstand a campaign by the employer with virtually unlimited resources. This could embolden employees at other Amazon locations who are interested in unionizing."
Workers were told that the company could not be unionized because of its size and commitment to keeping unions out, according to Sharon Block, executive director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass. The victory for the Amazon Labor Union at Staten Island shows that this is not true, she said. Block described Amazon's opposition to union organizing as "fierce" and described its tactics as "a cautionary...
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