Amazon workers are casting their ballots in another union drive at a warehouse on New York’s Staten Island.
Over 1,500 workers at the LDJ5 warehouse are eligible to vote in the election starting early Monday morning. The National Labor Relations Board will begin counting ballots on May 2.
The Amazon Labor Union is calling for Amazon to increase hourly wages to a minimum of $30 an hour. The average hourly starting pay at U.S. fulfillment centers is $18 an hour, according to Amazon. The union is also seeking longer breaks and improved benefits, among other demands.
The election is taking place just across the street from another Amazon warehouse called JFK8 which in a surprise move was voted in Amazon’s first U.S. union less than a month ago, a move considered a landmark win for unions.
As more labor unions have targeted Amazon, Amazon has become more active discouraging employees from unionizing. According to media reports the company has held mandatory meetings where employees are required to sit through anti-union presentations.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC last week that the company thinks employees are “better off” not joining a union, since “empowerment doesn’t happen when you have unions. It’s much more bureaucratic, it’s much slower.”
After the union’s win in JFK8, union president Chris Smalls says he’s heard interest in unionizing from workers at more than a hundred other Amazon facilities.
