Although Emily Stone's employment at an Amazon.com Inc.
warehouse ended on February 1, she still received a ballot for her former
company's union election in the weeks following her departure and a text asking
her to vote no.
اضافة اعلان
The union "will make a lot of promises, but have they
delivered on those promises?" read another text alert she got from the
Bessemer, Alabama warehouse's management, seen by Reuters. She recalled
thinking, "I can't figure out how to get them to stop sending me messages."
The company had declined to extend her paid leave after she
contracted COVID-19 in November, which sent her to the hospital, she said.
She is not alone. Reuters spoke or texted with 19 people
Amazon listed to receive a ballot for the election even though they now no
longer work at the company. At least two of them already voted, they told
Reuters.
Election terms, however, stipulate that workers who quit or
are discharged for cause after a payroll period ending January 9 are ineligible
to vote, according to a decision by the US National Labor Relations Board’s
(NLRB) acting regional director in Atlanta.
This group of Amazon workers — those who left after the
January payroll period, but still ended up on the NLRB's voter list — could
become a sticking point for both the company and the union.
It is not clear whether all workers who received ballots
were aware of the restriction, which was detailed in one sentence of the
five-page document.
Reuters couldn't determine the total number of Amazon
employees who received ballots in that ineligible category.
The ballots sent to former employees could stir a potential
vote-count battle between the company and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department
Store Union (RWDSU), which is aiming to be the first ever to organize one of Amazon's
facilities in the United States, a person familiar with union strategy said.
The RWDSU might dispute hundreds of names as ineligible to
vote in a campaign open to more than 5,800 workers, the person said. Amazon
declined to comment on whether it planned to dispute any names on the basis of
eligibility rules.
If the election is close, these contested ballots could
swing the outcome, helping encourage — or deter — future labor organizing at
America's second-biggest private employer after Walmart Inc.
Amazon has long discouraged attempts among its more than
800,000 US employees to organize, namely by showing managers how to spot union
activity, boosting pay and warning of employees of union dues.
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