A Teamsters group representing around 7,000 Amazon.com fulfillment center workers in Alberta and the Northwest Territories in Canada has applied with the Labor Board to hold a vote on unionization.
The attempt follows an unsuccessful attempt late last year at the Amazon site in Nisku, according to a statement released by the Teamsters on Monday.
Teamsters Local Union 362 has applied for a second attempt for a unionization ballot at the Amazon warehouse in Nisku, south of Edmonton, according to the Teamsters. The Alberta Labor Law Board would first authorize the proposal before a vote can be held.
Workers Joint Local leader & general director Richard Brown expressed his enthusiasm for the application."The workers there have been very vocal in their desire for representation and better working conditions," Brown said.
The Teamsters say they are confident they have met the required threshold and will be granted a vote this time. Before the voting can also be performed, the Alberta Labor Law Authority must certify the application.
Last fall, the Teamsters attempted to form a union at the Nisku Amazon site. However, they were unable to have their proposed vote certified because the labor relations board determined they did not have the required number of signed union cards.
If they are successful, the Nisku warehouse staff will be the first in Canada to vote on whether or not to unionize.
"Amazon will not change unless there is a union," François Laporte, national president of Teamsters Canada, said. "The company has shown that it is deeply anti-worker." As a company, we don't believe unions are the best option for our employees."
Meanwhile, Amazon is fighting back, spending millions of dollars on anti-union consultants and filing complaints about the election that is lost.
Amazon claims that the National Labor Relations Board's regional office in Brooklyn, which supervised the election, favored the union and helped it win. The company also objected to any of the Amazon Labor Union's actions, alleging that organizers threatened and harassed employees who did not support the union and gave workers marijuana in exchange for their support. Union organizers have openly discussed providing marijuana to workers, but not as a bribe.
However, hundreds of contested ballots remain unresolved in an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, where a union election is still pending. In that election, both Amazon and the Amazon Labor Union have filed challenges.
