Is Amazon desperate to find reasons to overturn a milestone union victory in Staten Island? A new allegation by the company seems to hint at yes.
“Amazon has claimed that New York union organizers handed out marijuana to workers in a bid to secure unionization votes.
The objection was one of several made by the ecommerce giant Friday as it seeks to overturn a vote that created the first union in the company’s history.
On April 1, the National Labor Relations Board said a majority of workers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York, had voted to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). Amazon is challenging the vote and has claimed that the ALU and the NLRB suppressed voter turnout.
In a filing Friday, Amazon questioned the methods used by the ALU to win unionization votes, according to multiple reports. Insider was unable to obtain the filing.
According to reports of the filing, Amazon’s lawyers said ALU organizers distributed cannabis to workers ahead of the vote, and said the NLRB ‘cannot condone such a practice as a legitimate method of obtaining support for a labor organization.’
Since 2021, New Yorkers aged 21 and over have been permitted to use recreational marijuana.
Eric Milner, a lawyer representing the ALU, told AP that organizers handing out cannabis was ‘no different than distributing free t-shirts and it certainly did not act to interfere with the election.’
Amazon and the ALU did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment made outside normal working hours.”
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