The count will resume Friday at 8:30 a.m. CST.
Currently, there are 1,100 “no” votes against the union, and 463 “yes” votes.
Some tweeters:
https://twitter.com/EzraNBC & https://twitter.com/GrimKim
The union seeking to represent workers said late Wednesday that there were 3,215 ballots cast — or about 55 percent of the roughly 5,800 workers who were eligible to vote. Hundreds of ballots are being contested, mostly by Amazon according to the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union.
Union elections are typically held in person, but the labor board determined that the election should be conducted by mail to minimize risks during the pandemic. The ballots were sent to workers in early February and were due at the agency before March 30. Since then, Amazon and the union have had a chance to challenge whether particular workers were eligible to vote. When the public counting is done, the agency will announce the formal results if the margin of victory for one side is greater than the number of contested ballots.
Each vote is taking about 7 seconds to count, that means the whole process should take about 6 hours and 15 minutes to complete. Looking like tomorrow.
On Amazon's side, it looks like there are mostly representatives from the law firm Morgan Lewis, which the company hired to help with this union vote, with a few corporate Amazon employees as well.
The vote counting is being shown on a video conference call to a small number of outsiders, including journalists, in addition to representatives from the union and the company.
The actual vote counting is being done in the NLRB offices in Birmingham, AL just a few miles from Bessemer where the Amazon Fulfillment Center known as BHM1 is located. That is the facility that is voting whether or not to join the union.
When the public counting is done, the agency will announce the formal results if the margin of victory for one side is greater than the number of contested ballots.
If the margin is narrower, then it could take two to three weeks for the N.L.R.B. to hold a hearing to sort through the contested ballots and take evidence from both sides on whether they should be counted.
Hundreds of ballots have been contested, which could delay either side from reaching the threshold.
Votes like this are to give a union (in this case the Resale, Wholesale, and Department Store Union) the sole legal right to negotiate contracts on behalf of employees. If it were to pass then all the workers in the warehouse would be represented by the union in contract negotiations. Because Alabama is a right-to-work state not all employees would have to join the union however. In states without right-to-work laws joining the union would almost certainly be required to work. Minority unions are legal but employers are not legally required to recognize them or involve them as a bargaining unit.