By Greg Bensinger
(Reuters) – Amazon workers in North Carolina voted against joining a union, a big win for the retail giant which has vigorously opposed organized labor at its facilities across the United States.
About three-quarters of voters were opposed, marking a setback for union officials who have long coveted Amazon because of how many industries it touches, including warehousing, trucking, manufacturing and even data processing. A simple majority of voters among the 4,300 workers at the warehouse in Garner, North Carolina, near Raleigh, was necessary to form the union.
The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, released the results of this week’s vote on Saturday. Among voters, 2,447 were opposed and 829 were in favor of joining a union.
Amazon has argued that its workers are best served by having a direct relationship with the company rather than through organized labor, while union officials have said improvements in working conditions and wages are only possible through collective bargaining.
The company said in a statement it was “glad” that workers “chose to keep a direct relationship with Amazon.” Union organizers said in a statement that the vote was the result of Amazon’s “relentless and illegal effort to intimidate” workers.
It was the second such vote Amazon faced in as many months, after a majority of workers at a Philadelphia Whole Foods location opted to join a union, the first at the grocery chain. Amazon has asked the NLRB to reject that vote over allegations that union officials coerced and intimidated workers in an effort to win the election. Union officials have denied those allegations, saying they ran fair elections.
Organizers of the upstart Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) had hoped to form Amazon’s second unionized warehouse following a successful 2022 vote at a facility in Staten Island by another group. Amazon has yet to recognize that union’s legitimacy or negotiate with organizers.
U.S. union membership has been in steady decline. The portion of workers in a union dropped to 9.9% last year from 10% in 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 11.1% a decade ago. North Carolina had just 2.4% union membership, the lowest among all states.
“Today’s result is not a surprise,” said John Logan, a San Francisco State University professor of labor and employment studies. “The odds are massively against any group of workers trying to form a union at Amazon,” he said, noting the company’s campaigns of anti-union messaging, among other tactics.
