I am wondering why I read articles about employees voting on unionizing across different Amazon warehouses in US. What kind of majority is required to start a union?
What happens if vote goes for NO?
Where I live, at least 10 people are required to start a union, you fill documentation, give it to court clerks and they register your union – no voting needed. There can be multiple unions within 1 company. There can be unions across whole industries etc.
In: 12
To form a union in the United States most of the time it starts with workers reaching out to an already established union in a similar trade for assistance. For example if you’re a building engineer and you think it might be beneficial for your team to be unionized you’d reach out to a building engineer’s union. This is because actually getting a union established requires a non-trivial amount of paperwork and once underway requires legal advice which the union can provide.
The first step is to solicit support from other workers in the form of a petition. Union support cards or a petition are signed by workers interested in joining the union, and if more than 30% of the people in a group indicate support the National Labor Relations Board will conduct a union election. The election process is highly regulated because employers will vigorously fight unionization efforts with every remedy possible. To protect workers the NLRB election rules prevent things like retaliatory action against organizing employees, promising employees raises/bonuses if they don’t vote for the union, locations of ballot boxes and how they are configured, what can and can’t be done by organizers on the property, etc.
Large companies like Amazon will use every trick in the book to skew the vote their way, in some cases violating the rules enough to trigger penalties and voiding of elections/do-overs. This in it of itself can be a strategy because the company has far more resources and money to fight an effort versus a union, and every day without union representation saves them money. A small penalty and more time to make their case with employees works in their favor.
Once a vote is conducted and if it is in favor of establishing a union the NLRB certifies the union as a designated representative for workers at the company. Each side is directed to establish a bargaining committee to work out the terms and conditions of the contract. This part of the process can go on for a long time, again because the company benefits from not having a union so every day without a union is a win. The NLRB has numerous rules with respect to this part of the process to avoid abuse, but companies still try to stretch this out as much as possible.
Once a contract is negotiated it is submitted by the union representatives to the members for a vote. If the vote is successful the contract is “ratified”, and it becomes the guiding document for labor/management relations going forward.
Union contracts typically expire after a certain number of years – 3 to 5 years being the most common. As a contract approaches expiration management and the union negotiate a new one. Each side creates their own bargaining committee, and the sides meet regularly to work out a new contract. If terms cannot be negotiated and an impasse is reached the union can respond with a strike and management can respond with a lock out. Some contracts contain a no-strike clause which prevents this, but unions can implement other measures to force pressure on the company.
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