Amazon labor union votes to join Teamsters

Workers in Amazon’s labor union voted to join the Teamsters by a huge margin of 98.3 percent as labor activity churns following a period of elevated inflation.

The newly chartered ALU-International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 1 will represent the around 5,500 Amazon warehouse workers at the company’s facility in Staten Island, N.Y., the Teamsters said Tuesday.

“The Teamsters and ALU will fight fearlessly to ensure Amazon workers secure the good jobs and safe working conditions they deserve in a union contract,” Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill on the outcome of the vote.

The vote will bring a segment of Amazon’s workforce into one of the largest labor union federations in the country; the Teamsters boast a membership of 1.3 million workers across the logistics and transportation sectors.

The vote follows a drive by Amazon to prevent a union from forming at the Staten Island facility, according to labor experts.

“Amazon spent more than $4 million attempting to keep a union out of its JFK8 warehouse, but lost when 2,654 workers voted ‘yes’ for joining the Amazon Labor Union and 2,131 voted ‘no,’” labor analysts with the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations wrote of the initial union vote in a 2022.

Following a period of elevated inflation throughout the global economy in response to pandemic emergency relief measures and a resulting cost of living crisis for many Americans, labor activity surged in the U.S. and elsewhere.

In 2022, union approval ratings among Americans hit their highest level since 1965, according to polling agency Gallup.

Strikes and other forms of labor activity have surged in recent years in industries including railroads, entertainment and health care.