NEW YORK—The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s long campaign to unionize workers at Amazon’s monster warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., is headed for the full National Labor Relations Board, after a board administrative law judge ruled on November 5 that Amazon broke labor law again often enough to order a second rerun election there.
The NLRB’s regional office ordered the first rerun on Nov. 20, 2020, after Amazon’s rampant labor law-breaking nullified the initial election before that. RWDSU’s first organizing drive drew national attention, with endorsements from Democratic President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., and a host of celebrities.
The rerun had no outside celebrities, by design. The BAmazon Labor Union kept it worker-to-worker and door-to-door in Bessemer, besides campaigning in neutral areas, such as the parking lot, break rooms, and bathrooms. The AFL-CIO marshaled organizers from other unions to help out.
There was enough company labor law-breaking in the second vote, which Amazon lost 875-993 with 416 challenged ballots, that ALJ Michael Silverstein threw out that election too, ordering a re-rerun.
But Silverstein tossed enough of RWDSU’s worst law-breaking—formally called unfair labor practices—claims the union is appealing his ruling to the full NLRB, Communications Director Chelsea Conner e-mailed to Press Associates.
Silverstein threw out all of Amazon’s complaints about the union, so the company is appealing to the full board, too, added Conner. No date has been set yet for a board hearing and ruling.
“We never doubted Amazon was going to take every opportunity, legal or not, to deny its employees at its Bessemer warehouse a free and fair election. These were the first Amazon warehouse workers anywhere in the nation who filed for union representation,” RWDSU President Stuart Applebaum said after receiving Silverstein’s ruling.
“Amazon has been found yet again to have violated basic labor laws. Just as was ordered after the first election, a new election, now a second rerun election, has again been ordered based on Amazon’s conduct, this time before even determining the final results of the rerun election.
“We reject, however, the ALJ’s decision not to provide any of the significant and meaningful remedies requested and would be required for a free and fair election. There is no reason to expect a different result in a third election–unless there are additional remedies. Otherwise, Amazon will continue repeating its past behavior and the Board will continue ordering new elections.
“There are two things clear in this decision; Amazon broke the law yet again, and labor law is stunningly broken in this country. We take exception to the decision of Administrative Law Judge Silverstein. Amazon must be held accountable, and we’ll be filing accordingly.”
Silverstein ruled Amazon’s labor law-breaking during the rerun election campaign included “text messages to [all] employees containing false accusations pro-union employees were harassing co-workers and encouraged employees to report such harassment to HR.”
To thwart the organizing drive, Amazon flew in 20 extra HR people from around the country and hired eight “labor consultants,” also known as union-busters.
There were also two cases of illegally removing pro-union literature from breakrooms, which are neutral non-work areas. Amazon claimed its outside cleaning contractor removed the union’s flyers, and RWDSU filed a labor law-breaking charge about it.
There were eight small-group meetings a day and one-on-one meetings between supervisors and workers, in addition to up to four large “captive audience” meetings a day.
The captive audience meetings, which RWDSU also challenged, included an Amazon flyer saying if the union won and bargaining started, workers could end up with less pay and benefits, or identical pay and perks, than now. RWDSU challenged that, too, as coercive, but Silverstein rejected it.
“With ballots mailed out to voters, the back-and-forth rancor ratcheted up, with the events of February 11th [2022] serving as the crescendo,” Silverstein wrote.
That day, anti-union worker Cory Smith, also known as Red Slavae, went out to the BAmazon table in the parking lot, bought a large red BAmazon T-shirt from pro-union worker Chris Sessions, took it to an end of the lot, and set it on fire, while smirking at Sessions. An Amazon “loss prevention agent” and a Bessemer city police officer investigated, but that was all, Silverstein said.
BAmazon had a day of fun during the campaign before the rerun election. It obtained a projection machine and inserted a slide saying “VOTE YES.” Then the union projected those words from the parking lot in big white letters on the side of the Bessemer warehouse just above the main entrance. A picture of the projection is in Silverstein’s decision.
His decision also reveals one other hurdle, commonly known, about Amazon: Incredible turnover. Such churning through workers makes organizing hard.
“As of January 1, 2022, there were approximately 6,000 hourly associates on BHM1’s payroll,” Silverstein wrote. “Headcount increases during the ‘peak’ season, which runs from Black Friday through Christmas as well as the late June/early July period leading up to Amazon Prime Day.
“Conversely, headcount drops after the Christmas rush and in late Summer. These seasonal swings yield a 100% attrition rate amongst BHM1’s hourly associates. As a result, about 70% of the current BHM1 workforce was hired after January 2022,” after the rerun vote.
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