A New York warehouse deals a setback to the union mobilization of Amazon workers

Workers at the Amazon LDJ5 warehouse in Staten Island (New York), this Monday after learning the result of the vote. DAVID DEE DELGADO (REUTERS)

The great victory that the US trade union movement won in April at an Amazon logistics center in Staten Island (New York) has suffered a blow this Monday in another nearby warehouse, also belonging to the e-commerce giant.

The workers opposed to unionizing have been imposed on those in favor of doing so by a difference of 62%, with a result of 618 votes against versus 380 in favour, according to the calculation of the National Labor Relations Board.

The abstention nevertheless marked the vote: of the 1,600 employees with the right to vote, most of them hired part-time, only a thousand participated.

The

of the company has not been reflected in the stock market results, however, since Amazon has left 2.7% this Monday, which is added to the loss of 14% on Friday, the auction of a gloomy quarterly balance.

The result is a setback not only for the newly formed Amazon Workers Union (ALU), which emerged from the April vote, but for the union mobilization as a whole, which in the last year has registered a 60 % more activity than in 2021, judging by the requests to hold union elections processed until March.

In a situation of imbalance in the labor market, with more supply than demand -especially in poorly paid positions-, and under the most

of the last decades, that of the Democrat Joe Biden, workers in the service sector, not only blue-collar workers -also white-collar professionals, or liberals, in architecture firms or important media outlets-, have given a decisive boost to the role of trade unions , when affiliation to them registers a historical minimum in the private sector, barely 11% of the active population.

The momentum of the Amazon workers has traveled a path fraught with obstacles in the last year.

In April 2021, employees at a warehouse in Alabama refused to organize, under the umbrella of the majority trade organization.

The labor relations board ordered a repeat vote due to the company's interference in the process, with a profusion of messages to employees about the

of organizing.

The April vote in the large Staten Island logistics center was a boost, especially for the constitution of its own union, but the rejection of the nearby warehouse - it is at the other end of the street - could mark, according to experts, a decline or at least a slowdown to the mobilization.

The difference between the JFK8 center, as the giant logistics center that voted to unionize is known, and the smaller warehouse that has refused to do so may lie in the different working conditions of the workers: a majority of full-time employees, in the JFK8, facing more precarious contracts, part-time, the latter.

Amazon is not the only large American company to watch, stunned, as union consciousness awakens.

The Starbucks coffee chain, which last December scored its first symbolic victory in Buffalo (New York), has registered more than 250 votes in as many places in the country, as has the sports equipment firm REI, both with one characteristic: the hiring of young people with more training for non-professional jobs, such as barista or salesman, often in temporary jobs until they find another one according to their training.

Amazon, however, is the true laboratory: not only because it is the second largest employer in the country, after the distribution giant Walmart, but also because of the quality of the work itself and the contractual relationship with the base of its workforce.

Until the launch of ALU in April, Amazon had managed to stop unionization attempts since its inception in 1994. Following its success, ALU generated overwhelming enthusiasm, to the point that its managers claim to have been contacted by warehouse representatives around the world. the country.

But the rejection of LDJ5, as the Amazon warehouse located across the street from Staten Island is known, tarnishes what until now seemed like an unstoppable race... not without new obstacles: after the April vote, Amazon filed a appeal, arguing that the ALU members had “intimidated” the employees.

The company also accused the Labor Relations Board branch in New York, responsible for overseeing the process, of bias.

The case has been transferred to the Phoenix branch,

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