A campaign to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Garner, North Carolina, got just 25% support in ballots counted Feb. 15. The tally was 829 in favor of joining independent Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) and 2,447 workers against, with 69% of the 4,738 eligible voters casting ballots. The facility is just outside Raleigh.
The vote came after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Amazon threatened workers with reprisal if they campaigned for the union. The agency also found that Amazon’s use of mandatory-attendance anti-union meetings, known as “captive audience” meetings, violated the National Labor Relations Act. The company is appealing that decision to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The NLRB has charged Amazon with dozens of other federal labor law violations in the last two years.
Since Amazon workers at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse voted to unionize in 2022, union campaigns have fallen short at warehouses in Albany, New York, and Bessemer, Alabama. The Staten Island union, which affiliated with the Teamsters last June, still doesn’t have a first union contract. Amazon drivers have voted in several locations to join the Teamsters, but the company has refused to recognize the union.
