Amazon organizers file for rare union election at Garner warehouse
A fierce union election could be coming to the sprawling Amazon warehouse south of Raleigh.
On Monday, the local organizing group Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election that, if successful, would make the RDU1 facility in Garner the second unionized Amazon facility in the United States.
Opened in August 2020, RDU1 spans 2 million square feet and houses multiple departments across four floors. It supports several thousand workers, with estimates ranging between 3,500 to 6,000.
CAUSE seeks to negotiate wages and working conditions on behalf of RDU1 workers. Its demands include $30-an-hour minimum starting wages and full-hour paid breaks during shifts, which can last more than 10 hours.
Currently, Amazon says it pays U.S. customer fulfillment workers between $18.50 and $29.50 an hour, varying with location, at an average around $22.
In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards responded to the possibility of a union election.
“We’re very skeptical that this group has a sufficient number of legitimate signatures to support a petition for election at our facility in Garner,” Hards said in an email.
“The fact is, Amazon already offers what many unions are requesting: Safe, inclusive workplaces, competitive pay, industry-leading benefits — including health care on day one, pre-paid college tuition, and a 401k with company match — opportunities for career growth, and more.”
Next steps
Since Labor Day, CAUSE has collected employee union authorization cards. The NLRB requires organizers obtain cards signed from at least 30% of a workforce before the government will set an election. While Amazon hasn’t disclosed how many people work at RDU1, CAUSE said in a statement Monday it believes it’s “easily exceeded the 30% threshold.”
The NLRB will now review the petition and call for a vote if enough cards were signed.
“Amazon prioritizes profit over everything else, especially the well-being of workers,” CAUSE president Ryan Brown said in a statement.
Brown, who co-founded CAUSE in early 2022, was fired from RDU1 earlier this month following an Amazon investigation that concluded he had directed “racist” and “derogatory” language to a manager. Brown denied the company’s findings.
His dismissal illustrated the contentious relationship between CAUSE and Amazon. The organizing group has bristled at union education sessions Amazon has held at RDU1, accusing the company of using these meetings to union-bust. And on Dec. 6, three CAUSE organizers were arrested outside the warehouse while collecting union authorization cards.
While 30% is the minimum to get an election called, the union must win more than 50% of a final vote to gain the right to collective bargaining.
Organizing at the country’s second-largest private employer has proven difficult. Labor’s big win came in April 2022, when Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to form the first union at a company facility. Since then however, vote to unionize other massive Amazon sites in Alabama and New York have fallen short.
Amazon did not respond to questions about the size of its RDU1 workforce or Brown’s critiques. Company spokespeople have previously said Amazon does not believe unionization is in the best interest of its workers.
This story was originally published December 23, 2024 at 12:54 PM.
