New York City warehouse workers who are part of the Amazon Labor Union voted overwhelmingly to side with the Teamsters as they try to get a contract from the online retailer.
ALU members voted 98.3% in favor of affiliation, which will give them access to additional resources in their effort to bring Amazon to the negotiating table, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Tuesday.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ALU will essentially join the Teamsters as a “standalone” local union with the same rights and duties as a standard chapter, according to the agreement.
The approximately 5,500 Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island will be represented by the newly created ALU-International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1. It will have jurisdiction for Amazon warehouse workers in the five boroughs of New York.
“Together, with hard work, courage and conviction, 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,” said Teamsters General President, Sean M. O’Brien, in a statement.
The Amazon Labor Union is the only labor organization to achieve a union victory at an Amazon warehouse in the US. The group won the Staten Island warehouse election in 2022, but was unable to secure a union contract due to opposition from Amazon.
Both ALU and Teamsters leaders agreed to the affiliation earlier this month, but the move needed to be ratified by workers.
The Teamsters previously said the move would bring it closer to its objective of unionizing Amazon’s non-corporate workforce. The union has been pushing to organize Amazon’s driving workforce, although that effort has not led to any major victories recognized by the company.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, created in 1903, has 1.3 million members in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. O’Brien was elected in 2021 on a platform that emphasized greater organization at Amazon.
While the ratification is seen by some as a success for the ALU, the grassroots working group has faced some challenges, including two election defeats at other Amazon warehouses and internal conflicts over its organizing strategy.
Some organizers left to form the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus, a splinter group that sued ALU last year to force an election for new leadership. That election is expected to be held in July, outside the warehouse that voted to unionize, Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer representing the splinter group, said earlier this month.
