The facility is in suburban Albany, New York. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union representation votes, has confirmed the filing but has yet to verify the signatures of the employees who signed cards asking for the vote. At least 30% of the employees in a potential bargaining unit need to sign cards for an election to be held.
Smalls said he is talking to employees who are working to hold elections at other facilities across the country, although he wouldn’t say how many organizing campaigns are underway.
“There will be plenty more to come after that in short order. It’s growing every week,” he said. “All we can do is continue to build and organize. Hopefully the company will change their outlook once they see this is something not going away.”
“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have. As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees,” said the company’s statement. “Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
While a bit more than one third of government workers are members of a union, according to Labor Department statistics, only 6.1% of workers employed by businesses are union members. And those private sector union members are concentrated in a few specific industries, such as manufacturing, airlines, construction and health care. Only 4% of retail workers are union members.
