Labor Board Recommends New Union Election At Amazon Facility

Daily Caller:
Thomas Catenacci

A National Labor Relations Board hearing officer formally recommended that a second union election take place at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.

Hearing Officer Kerstin Meyers said the labor board’s regional director should nullify the results of the April election, in which workers overwhelmingly rejected unionizing, according to a Monday statement from the labor union that attempted to organize the warehouse. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) challenged the results of the election shortly after it concluded, alleging that Amazon violated several labor laws to coerce workers into voting against unionization.

In May, Meyers presided over a multi-week hearing where RWDSU and Amazon lawyers presented arguments in favor and against holding a new election.

“Throughout the NLRB hearing, we heard compelling evidence how Amazon tried to illegally interfere with and intimidate workers as they sought to exercise their right to form a union,” RWSDSU President Stuart Appelbaum said in a statement on Monday. “We support the hearing officer’s recommendation that the NLRB set aside the election results and direct a new election.”

“Amazon’s behavior throughout the election process was despicable,” he continued. “Amazon cheated, they got caught, and they are being held accountable.”

The two sides called dozens of witnesses including Amazon warehouse workers, union organizers and United States Postal Service executives over the course of the hearing. Perhaps the biggest allegation came when Kevin Jackson, a Bessemer warehouse worker, alleged that he witnessed security guards at the facility opening the mailbox that was placed on the premises to collect ballots. more