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Updated: Petition Withdrawn to Hold Election at New Jersey Amazon Warehouse


Ironically, on the same day I posted an article last week which noted that an election was set to be held at a New Jersey Amazon warehouse, the union that sought to hold the election withdrew its petition from the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”).

For a bit of background here, Local 713 of the International Brotherhood of Trade Unions had sought to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Bayonne, New Jersey.  In doing so, they had obtained 30% of signatures from eligible workers at the warehouse and filed their petition with the NLRB to have an election held.  While it appeared that the NLRB would set the election date, the union last week requested to withdraw its petition.  The NLRB indicated it would accept the withdrawal request and therefore no election will be held at this time. 

The timing of this withdrawal is a bit odd.  Give the momentum that workers suddenly have, in regard to unionization at places such as Starbucks, REI, and Amazon, now would be as good of a time as any to hold an election.  However, there were some rumblings about alleged unsavory ties that the union has which might have been grounds for the withdrawal of the petition.  These allegations only recently came to light which had started to pick up some unwanted media coverage.

What is next here?  Will another unionization push take place?  I suspect things will cool for a bit here but believe it is certainly possible (if not probable) that a renewed unionization effort is not far off at this Amazon warehouse.


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