Amazon faces new union test in North Carolina

North Carolina is a state that is generally hostile to unions. Amazon is a company that is, historically, extremely hostile to unions. Now an upstart union is attempting to represent more than 4,000 Amazon workers at one of the online retailer’s facilities there.

North Carolina is a state that is generally hostile to unions. Amazon is a company that is, historically, extremely hostile to unions. Now an upstart union is attempting to represent more than 4,000 Amazon workers at one of the online retailer’s facilities there. The National Labor Relations Board is overseeing a six-day vote starting Monday, with votes due to be counted Saturday. A win by the union, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE, in the town of Garner would be just the second Amazon facility to see a union win a representation vote, following a 2022 election at one of the company’s major sorting and distribution centers in Staten Island, New York. Amazon, the nation’s second largest private sector employer, has faced increasing pressure from unions in recent months. And despite the fact that North Carolina has the lowest percentage of union membership among workers of any state — only 2.4% of workers overall, which is less than one-quarter of the national average — leaders of the union’s efforts said that they are confident about the outcome of the vote. “As you imagine Amazon has been doing everything to make sure we don’t win,” Italo Medelius-Marsano, an Amazon worker and one of the leaders of the campaign, told CNN. “The amount of money that Amazon is pouring into this, the people they’re flying in to take us on, the propaganda — all of that tells us they’re scared. That fear tells us that they know we’re on the verge of something great.” The company said that it is confident that workers in Garner, a town of 35,000 just outside of Raleigh, want to keep the sorting and distribution warehouse union-free. “We believe our employees favor opportunities to have their unique voice heard by working directly with our team,” said a statement from Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards. “The fact is, Amazon already offers what many unions are requesting: safe, inclusive workplaces, competitive pay, industry-leading benefits.”