Amazon union vote counts are scheduled on Thursday; turnout in Alabama has decreased

Reuters reports that On Thursday afternoon, labor board authorities anticipate to begin tallying ballots cast by Amazon.com Inc warehouse employees in New York City and Alabama in separate races that will determine if Amazon sees a U.S. workplace unionize for the first time.

Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted in a re-election after rejecting joining the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) by a more than 2-to-1 majority last year. After discovering that Amazon had tampered with the vote, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered a rerun.

The RWDSU reported on Wednesday that voter turnout in Alabama was down from last year. In the current election, around 39 percent of the 6,143 employees authorized to receive postal votes voted, down from more than 50 percent in 2021.

Workers in New York City's Staten Island borough had several hours remaining to vote on Wednesday, although turnout was not yet known.

The counts for Bessemer and Staten Island are provisionally slated to begin at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, but that might change, according to an NLRB representative. Counting might take many days.

According to John Logan, a labor expert at San Francisco State University, the low participation may speak well for Amazon's union supporters.

"Supporters are more likely to be strong union voters," he added, adding that generalization was difficult. "Even a close election will be a type of morale booster and moral win for the RWDSU."

Amazon forwarded questions about the vote count and turnout to the National Labor Relations Board.

Parties in the Bessemer election, according to the RWDSU, have disputed hundreds of votes as invalid for counting, citing, for example, voters' employment dates, job classification, or other concerns.

These issues will be resolved once the remaining votes are tallied, and they have the potential to change the result of a tight election.