The Trump administration’s labor board ordered Amazon to recognize and negotiate with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, which represents workers at a Staten Island warehouse. It’s just the latest chapter in a years-long standoff between Staten Island warehouse workers and Amazon, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The union has been trying for years to bring Amazon to the bargaining table to negotiate wages, benefits and workplace safety. The labor commission’s proclamation does not mean the battle is over. It is very likely that this will be resolved in court.
An Amazon spokesperson says the vote to form the union was “legally erroneous” and that National Labor Relations Board officials “inappropriately influenced the election.” The company recently said it was “confident that an impartial court would overturn the original certification.”
Despite the end result, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien congratulated Staten Island workers for becoming “the first group to force the company to recognize their union.” Establishment workers voted to unionize in 2022 and it was the first union victory for Amazon workers in the United States.
This was seen as a historic victory for all American workers, given that Amazon is the the second largest employer in the country. That was four years ago and led to a contract legal battle, with Amazon refusing to recognize the union. Since that initial vote, the labor board has repeatedly concluded that Amazon violated the union rights of workers at the Staten Island warehouse. For example, the company failed to pay employees when they were forced to stop working. due to a fire in a warehouse in late 2022 and suspended 50 employees for organizing a walkout due to unsafe working conditions.
A union at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island said 50 workers at the factory were suspended for staging a walkout after a fire earlier in the day made working conditions unsafe. https://t.co/iVY62wv0rX
– CBS News (@CBSNews) October 5, 2022
Several heartbreaking incidents also took place before the union vote. It was reported that the company had illegally fired several Staten Island warehouse workers during the Covid pandemic. The New York Attorney General also found safe conditions to the warehouse as “inadequate”. A recent study echoes this sentimentcalling out the Staten Island warehouse for its unsafe working conditions. The report says there are 7.2 serious injuries per 100 workers.
Other US-based Amazon warehouses have yet to follow suit and unionize like Staten Island, but the same is not true in Canada. Workers in a warehouse in Quebec voted to form a union in 2024.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-labor-board-tells-amazon-to-negotiate-with-staten-island-warehouse-union-161149065.html?src=rss
