Staff stroll to solid their votes over whether or not or to not unionize, at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island on March 25, 2022. One other Amazon warehouse throughout the road started voting on a union on Monday.

Ed Jones/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

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Ed Jones/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Staff stroll to solid their votes over whether or not or to not unionize, at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island on March 25, 2022. One other Amazon warehouse throughout the road started voting on a union on Monday.

Ed Jones/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Can an upstart, impartial union stage a repeat victory?

That is the query on Staten Island this week as extra Amazon warehouse staff vote on whether or not to affix the Amazon Labor Union.

Roughly 1,500 staff who work in a facility sorting packages for supply are eligible to vote within the election. Voting, which is happening in individual beneath a tent outdoors the warehouse, started at 4:30 a.m. on Monday and concludes at 11 p.m. on Friday.

The election comes lower than a month after the Amazon Labor Union won a historic victory, unionizing the primary Amazon warehouse within the U.S. — a large facility throughout the road the place some 8,300 staff choose and bundle up objects for buyer orders. Led by former and present Amazon staff, the Amazon Labor Union completed what well-established unions with deep pockets had lengthy set their sights on however failed to perform.

The Amazon Labor Union is asking for longer breaks, higher well being and security coverage, and raises, amongst different calls for. In Amazon warehouses, the work is fast-paced and bodily demanding, with staff lifting packages as heavy as 50 kilos.

Amazon Labor Union president Chris Smalls speaks following the April 1, 2022, vote if favor of unionization, a primary for Amazon services within the U.S.

Andrea Renault/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

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Andrea Renault/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Amazon Labor Union president Chris Smalls speaks following the April 1, 2022, vote if favor of unionization, a primary for Amazon services within the U.S.

Andrea Renault/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Within the weeks because the union’s win, union president Chris Smalls says he is heard from staff at greater than 100 different Amazon services, expressing curiosity in unionizing.

In the meantime, Amazon continues to struggle again, spending tens of millions of {dollars} on anti-union consultants and submitting objections within the election it misplaced.

Amazon says the Nationwide Labor Relations Board’s regional workplace in Brooklyn, which oversaw the election, favored the union and facilitated its victory. The corporate additionally raised objections to among the Amazon Labor Union’s actions, charging that organizers harassed and threatened staff who weren’t supporting the union and handed out marijuana to staff in return for his or her assist. In reality, the union organizers have spoken overtly about offering staff with marijuana, however not as a bribe.

A listening to will likely be held to think about these objections at a future date.

In the meantime, the union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, nonetheless hangs within the stability, with a whole lot of contested ballots unresolved. Each Amazon and the Amazon Labor Union have filed objections in that election.

And a petition for a union election at a 200-person Amazon facility in Bayonne, New Jersey, was withdrawn simply days after it was filed. The union behind the petition, Native 713 Worldwide Brotherhood of Commerce Union, has no contact identify or quantity on its web site. Since 2012, two of its leaders have been indicted on corruption chargers. A lawyer for the union declined additional touch upon the election petition or its withdrawal.