Amazon union election in Albany to begin in October
Amazon said the election will take place between Oct. 12 and 17, though a spokesperson for a federal labor agency said the dates are still being finalized.
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Amazon workers arrive with paperwork to unionize at the NLRB office in Brooklyn, New York, October 25, 2021.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Amazon will face a union election at one of its warehouses in upstate New York next month, the company confirmed to CNBC.
Employees at the warehouse, which is located in the town of Schodack, southeast of Albany, New York, will cast their ballots between Oct. 12 and 17, Amazon said.
A group of workers at the facility, known as ALB1, last month filed a request for a union vote. They're seeking to be represented by the Amazon Labor Union, a grassroots group of current and former employees that successfully unionized one of Amazon's Staten Island warehouses, known as JFK8.
The National Labor Relations Board in late August determined employees had met the requirements to hold a union election at the Albany warehouse. Unions are eligible to hold an election after they've collected signatures of support from at least 30% of workers.
Amazon spokesperson Paul Flaningan said the company remains skeptical that there are enough "legitimate signatures" to move forward with an election, but that it supports employees' right "to have their voices heard, and we hope and expect this process allows for that."
NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado and union organizer Heather Goodall confirmed an election would be held at the facility next month.
The election will be held in a tent outside the facility, Blado said. The NLRB will begin counting votes on Oct. 18.
The Albany election will test whether the ALU can replicate its victory on Staten Island. The ALU faced an early setback in May when workers at a nearby facility rejected joining a union.
In recent months, the ALU has been locked in legal disputes with Amazon over the results of the JFK8 vote. Amazon has argued the results should be thrown out, alleging the union and the NLRB engaged in misconduct that tainted the election process.
Earlier this month, an NLRB official recommended Amazon's objections should be dismissed, and the results should be upheld. Amazon has until Friday to appeal the official's recommendations.
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