Amazon defeats unionization effort at Alabama warehouse

In a major victory for Jeff Bezos’s bulging retail and technology empire, Amazon beat back efforts to unionize its warehouse in Bessemer, Ala.

The e-commerce juggernaut on Friday secured more than the 1,608 votes it needed to reject a proposed union contact — shutting down a hotly contested labor battle that threatened to influence similar recruitment efforts brewing at Amazon warehouses across the country. Amazon needed just 1,608 votes, or a little more than half of the ballots cast, to defeat the union drive. It received 1,798, according to the official tally released Friday.