Amazon union vote is too close to call in Alabama, but pro-union votes lead in New York

• An initial tally of union votes on Thursday showed Amazon workers in Alabama poised to reject unionization for a second time.
• Hundreds of contested ballots could potentially swing the election, and a final decision could take weeks to resolve.

If current vote count trends hold, Amazon could have its first unionized warehouse as soon as Friday.

The newly formed Amazon Labor Union appears on track to declare victory at the company's JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York.

As the first day of counting closed in New York on Thursday, the Amazon Labor Union was leading with 1,518 votes in favor, to 1,154 opposed, according to National Labor Relations Board officials. Hundreds more ballots remain to be counted Friday in that election, but unless the vast majority of those ballots swing in the company's favor, it's unlikely Amazon will make up the union's early lead.

Meanwhile, challenged ballots will decide the fate of a union campaign at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, after the vote was too close to call at the close of counting on Thursday.

The organizing drive at the facility in Bessemer, known as BHM1, is led by the 80-year-old Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, and resulted in a tally of 993 against the union and 875 in favor of it, according to the National Labor Relations Board. A simple majority is needed for either side to win.

But more than 400 contested ballots remain to be evaluated in Bessemer — a margin big enough to potentially swing the election. An NLRB director will rule on whether to open the challenged ballots to be counted within the next several weeks, a spokesperson for the agency said Thursday.

The union drive in Bessemer is the second at that facility, after a federal labor official last year threw out the results of an earlier election over what she said was Amazon's undue influence over workers' votes. That first election swung nearly 2-to-1 in favor of Amazon.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While the preliminary results of the second Bessemer vote are significantly closer than the first bout, it's unlikely the union will prevail there, Insider previously reported. The union has struggled to make headway against the facility's high turnover, the lack of similarly well-paying jobs in the region, and some workers' skepticism about the efficacy of unions — an attitude reinforced by Amazon in mandatory anti-union meetings.

Amazon Labor Union organizers in New York were cautiously optimistic at the close of Thursday's vote count. Only a small number of ballots were challenged, the union said, meaning the final vote count tomorrow will likely stand, barring a challenge from Amazon.

"I'm feeling good, but I'm not celebrating yet," union leader Christian Smalls, a former JFK8 employee, told Insider. "We'll celebrate tomorrow."

Smalls emerged as a thorn in Amazon's side at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he organized a walkout in protest of what he said were the company's lackluster safety protocols. Amazon fired him, then drafted a plan to smear Smalls, who an executive called "not smart or articulate," according to a leaked memo obtained by Vice.

Smalls launched the Amazon Labor Union last year. In addition to the JFK8 warehouse, the ALU also aims to organize an adjacent delivery station in Staten Island, known as LDJ5. A union election will be held in that facility later this month.

In Bessemer, labor leaders struck a defiant tone in a news conference Thursday evening, and vowed to continue to organize Amazon workers whatever the final outcome of the vote. The union will likely lodge objections to Amazon's conduct in this election, said RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum. That could result in a re-run if the NLRB decides the union's complaints have merit.

"Even if things didn't move as fast in our area, across the country … people have gotten courage because of what we did in Bessemer, to demand their unions and their union elections," said Jennifer Bates, an Amazon employee and union organizer. "I'm ecstatic that they have the courage to fight back. The working class is going to continue to fight in the movement."

Do you work at Amazon? Got a tip? Contact reporter Katherine Long via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-206-375-9280) or email (klong@insider.com).