NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A group of Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island has formally refiled a union petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado confirmed to WCBS 880 that the board received the petition on Wednesday.
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU), an independent group of about 2,000 employees from four Amazon facilities in the borough, had also planned a lunchtime walk-out and an 8 p.m. rally in Times Square.
The group’s plan for a unionization vote would again require signatures from at least 30% of the workers at the four facilities.
Previous efforts to unionize the employees at Amazon’s Staten Island facilities have failed.
The ALU had filed a petition for a union vote in October but withdrew a month later after the NLRB determined there was not enough support to continue.
“As a matter of public health and a matter of reparations, Amazon should immediately recognize the union without a drawn-out NLRB election,” said ALU leader Chris Smalls.
This is not the first time Staten Island’s Amazon facilities have made headlines. Last year, Smalls – a former Amazon employee – organized a walkout at one of the borough’s warehouses over pandemic working conditions.
In this petition for a union vote, the ALU is calling on Amazon to bring back hazard pay, allow workers to bring cell phones into work, stop sexual harassment and stop union-busting.
The group also emphasized the need for a union by pointing to the tragedy in Edwardsville, Illinois – in which six people were killed in a tornado strike at an Amazon facility.
“The needless deaths in Edwardsville underscored Amazon's reckless profit-over-people practices, which range from other instances of forcing workers to stay on the job in extreme weather (Hurricane Ida) to having more than double the average rate of warehouse injuries,” the ALU said.
The group said it already has the support of thousands of Staten Island Amazon warehouse workers who want a union.
NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado confirmed to WCBS 880 that the board received the petition on Wednesday.
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