Amazon Labor Union workers vote overwhelmingly in favor of affiliation with Teamsters

Amazon Labor Union workers vote overwhelmingly in favor of affiliation with Teamsters

Workers who are part of the Amazon Labor Union are aligning themselves with the Teamsters, overwhelmingly voting in favor of an affiliation

ByMICHELLE CHAPMAN AP business writer

June 18, 2024, 9:36 AM

Workers who are part of the Amazon Labor Union are aligning themselves with the Teamsters, overwhelmingly voting in favor of an affiliation.

The ALU members voted 98.3% in favor of the affiliation, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Tuesday. The affiliation gives the union workers access to various resources as they work to get a contract from Amazon, they added.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The approximately 5,500 Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York will be represented by the ALU-International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1, which will be newly chartered. It will have jurisdiction for Amazon warehouse workers across New York’s five boroughs.

“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," Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.

The Amazon Labor Union agreed to affiliate with the Teamsters earlier this month and were just waiting to vote to ratify the affiliation.

The ALU will essentially join the Teamsters as an “autonomous” local union with the same rights and duties as a standard chapter, according to the agreement.

The Teamsters previously said that its board had already unanimously approved the affiliation, a step that will bring them closer to their goal of unionizing Amazon’s non-corporate workforce.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, created in 1903, has 1.3 million members in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

While the ratification is viewed by some as a success for the ALU, the grassroots labor group has faced some challenges, including two election losses at other Amazon warehouses and internal strife about its organizing strategy. Some organizers have left to form the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus, a dissident group that sued the union last year to force an election for new leadership. That election is expected to be held in July outside of the warehouse that voted to unionize, Arthur Schwartz, an attorney who represents the dissident group, said earlier this month.