Amid rising labor activism after soaring inflation, unionized Amazon workers voted by a staggering 98.3 percent to join the Teamsters.
The newly chartered ALU-International Teamsters Fraternal Union (IBT) Local 1 will represent about 5,500 warehouse workers at an Amazon facility in Staten Island, New York, the Teamsters announced Tuesday.
“The Teamsters and ALU will fight vigorously to ensure that Amazon workers have the good jobs and safe working conditions they deserve under their union contract,” Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
Amazon did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on the vote results.
The Teamsters represent 1.3 million workers across the logistics and transportation sector, and the vote will mean some Amazon employees will join one of the largest labor union coalitions in the country.
The vote comes in response to the company’s efforts to block a union from forming at its Staten Island facility, labor experts said.
“Amazon spent more than $4 million trying to keep a union out of its John F. Kennedy warehouse but failed when 2,654 workers voted ‘yes’ and 2,131 voted ‘no’ to unionize Amazon,” labor analysts at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations wrote about the first union vote of 2022.
Following a period of higher inflation across the global economy in response to pandemic emergency relief measures and the resulting cost-of-living crisis that affected many Americans, labor activity has surged in the United States and elsewhere.
In 2022, Americans’ support for labor unions will reach its highest level since 1965, according to Gallup, a polling organization.
In recent years, there has been a surge in strikes and other labor activity in industries such as rail, entertainment and health care.
