Amazon.com workers reject forming union

Amazon is walking away with a victory Friday in its battle against the effort to unionize a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse.

Workers voted at a more than 2-to-1 margin not to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union or RWDSU.

According to the tally from agents at the National Labor Relations Board, 1,798 voted against forming a union, with 738 ballots in favor.

Only a simple majority was needed for victory.

But this fight isn't over. The union group said it was filing objections to the outcome, accusing Amazon of interfering with employees' right to vote and downright intimidation.

RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum:

"What I think you saw in the results, despite the number of people who signed cards, was a real fear that they were going to lose their jobs if they voted for the union. And that's because they felt that Amazon knew everything they were doing and even how they were voting. Most importantly, people should not presume that the results of this vote are, in any way, a validation of Amazon's working conditions and the way it treats its employees."

Both sides have the same legal options: challenge the eligibility of individual voters or allege that coercive conduct tainted the election.

The dispute now likely heads to the National Labor Relations Board and then possibly to a federal appeals court.

Friday's defeat is a major blow to organized labor since Amazon is America's second-largest private employer and this win would've have been the first against the e-commerce giant. A union victory would've also been the first step at beginning a reverse of a decades-long decline in union membership.

Amazon has long waged an anti-union campaign, and has claimed unions don't fully represent the views of all of its 800,000 employees.

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