Amazon workers in New York cancel petition to hold a union election

Amazon employees in Staten Island, New York, previously filed a petition so they could hold a union voting. However, in a recent development, it was reported that the same group of workers decided to cancel their request.

This information was said to have been confirmed by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board's spokeswoman late last week. The Amazon Labor Union filed the petition in October as it joined in the calls of unions to organize the company's extensive network of warehouse workers by forming a union.

As per Fox Business, the reason why the New York-based Amazon workers decided to withdraw their petition was not known, so there is no clear explanation. The publication reached out to Chris Smalls, a former Amazon employee at the Staten Island warehouse facility and leader of the union, but he did not immediately respond.

On the other hand, Amazon's spokeswoman, Kelly Nantel, said in a statement, "Our focus remains on listening directly to our employees and continuously improving on their behalf."

The withdrawal of the petition comes less than two weeks before the national labor board was to hold a hearing to see if there is enough ground for workers at Amazon distribution hubs to unionize. Kayla Blado, NLRB's spokeswoman refused to share more detail regarding the reason for the cancellation of the petition but she stressed that workers can always re-submit a petition if they want to, the Associated Press reported.

For workers to hold a vote and make their petition work, the organizers of leaders of the group must gather enough signatures. In the case of Amazon, they must present the signatures of at least 30% of the total 5,500 employees that the union said work at four of the company's facilities that it seeks to represent under collective bargaining.

It was noted that this is the workers' second attempt to unionize in recent years. It can be recalled that in April, the union was overwhelmingly defeated in their attempt as workers at Amazon's Alabama warehouses voted against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and this turn of events was a blow to labor organizers.

Meanwhile, the leader of the union in New York, Christian Smalls, said he was fired not long after he organized a strike last year. At that time, the walkout was held to protest working conditions at the outset of the pandemic.