(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. workers at a second facility in New York have won approval to hold a union election.
The upstart Amazon Labor Union has gathered enough signatures from employees at the LDJ5 warehouse in Staten Island to proceed with a vote, according to a National Labor Relations Board spokesperson.
The union previously won approval to hold an election at the nearby JFK8 fulfillment center, where voting will run from March 25 to March 30.
A union election is also underway at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama — a do-over after the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union contested its loss last year.
The NLRB said that if Amazon and the ALU fail to agree on which job roles should be included in the proposed bargaining unit at the second Staten Island facility, each party will have a chance to air their concerns at a hearing.
After that, an NLRB official will decide when the election can proceed.
While triggering a vote requires only 30% support of a facility’s workers, the union must win a majority of ballots to prevail in an election.
The successful petition for a second election in New York is a coup for ALU leader Christian Smalls and his group, who lack prior union organizing experience.
Smalls worked at Amazon for more than four years before being fired in 2020 for what the company said was a violation of safety guidelines. Smalls said he was protesting Amazon’s Covid-19 policies. Last week, Smalls was arrested and charged with trespassing while delivering food to workers at the JFK8 facility.
“We look forward to having our employees’ voices heard,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement.
“Our focus remains on working directly with our team to make Amazon a great place to work.”
(Updates with NLRB, Amazon comment.)
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