Amazon workers narrowly reject the union in a historic vote

It went on to organize a further 37 days of industrial action in the past year and, through picket line recruitment, steadily increased its membership to over 1,400 members out of the centre’s estimated 3,000+ workers.

In April, the union launched a legal challenge against Amazon, alleging it used underhanded tactics to encourage members to cancel their union memberships.

He said on Wednesday that the legal challenge would continue.

As part of the challenge, the GMB says Amazon put up posters in processing centers with QR codes that triggered an email to the union’s membership department asking for membership to be cancelled.

Amazon responded by saying that “employees were telling us they wanted to cancel their membership but couldn’t find a way to do so, so we provided information to help.

“We have always been clear that union membership is an employee’s personal choice.”

Amazon, which is one of Britain’s biggest private sector employers with 75,000 workers, has said all along that it does not want to recognize a union and wants to maintain direct communication with its staff.

After Wednesday’s vote, he further reiterated that “having daily conversations” with staff was “an essential part of our work culture”.

“We value this direct relationship, and so do our employees. That’s why we’ve always strived to listen to them, take their feedback into account and invest heavily in high wages, benefits and skills development,” the firm added.

The GMB says it is surprised by what it sees as the fearlessness of an overwhelmingly immigrant workforce, many of whom have recently arrived from South Asia.

Union organizers estimate that only 5% of Coventry workers are British-born and its campaign leaflets have been translated into 12 different languages.

They say at first many were scared to get involved, but as the strikes continued and people saw that workers who joined the picket lines faced no disciplinary action, their confidence grew.

The union hopes the government will strengthen its organizing power.

Labor promised legislation in today’s King’s Speech to make it easier for unions to win recognition ballots by lowering the threshold needed to win and to make it easier to recruit union officials into workplaces.

Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak said despite going up against one of the “biggest corporate giants in the world”, Coventry union members “narrowly missed out” on gaining recognition.

“As Labor prepares to usher in a new era of stronger workers’ rights, companies like Amazon are on the wrong side of history,” he added.

But Gregor Gall, professor of industrial relations at the University of Glasgow, questioned whether the GMB had the resources to take the fight to other Amazon hubs.

“The cost of union organizing is very high. The GMB had officers working full-time on this. We won’t necessarily see organizing events elsewhere,” he said.

Professor Gall’s caution is understandable given what has happened in the United States.