Amazon loses appeal to overturn unionization vote

Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) appeal to overturn the results of a 2022 unionization vote of workers at a New York warehouse has been denied by a National Labor Relations Board panel.

The rejection means Amazon (AMZN) has run out of options to reject the election results through the NLRB, and will now have to sue the labor agency and present its arguments in court.

A spokesperson for Amazon (AMZN) said the company plans to challenge the latest ruling. “We believe the decision will be overturned when it’s reviewed by an unbiased court.”

“Amazon (AMZN) needs to stop wasting its time and money and come to the table,” said Christian Smalls, who led Amazon unionization efforts on Staten Island.

Workers voted to unionize the Amazon (AMZN) warehouse on Staten Island in 2022, creating the first and only union in the company’s history. The Amazon Labor Union recently voted to join the powerful Teamsters union.

Amazon (AMZN) argued that the ALU and the regional NLRB office that oversaw the vote created an unfair playing field for the election, and called for a new election, citing new evidence.

“We have considered the evidence proffered by the employer, and have determined that this evidence would not warrant a second election,” the NLRB panel said in its decision.

Last week, the NLRB ruled that Amazon (AMZN) is a joint employer of its delivery driver partners, and therefore has a legal duty to bargain with Teamsters. The company argued that these drivers are contracted through third-party companies, because of which they are not its employees.