Bullying, threats and union-busting: Amazon swings union recognition vote by the narrowest of margins – but this isn’t over
The results of the union recognition ballot at the Amazon Coventry warehouse were announced yesterday. Of the 2,600 workers who voted, 49.5% voted in favour, 50.5% against. Agonisingly close.
Just 15 votes more in favour and the Coventry Warehouse would have been the first in Europe where Amazon is forced to recognise the trade union.
We think Amazon’s union-busting during the ballot was unlawful – so we’ve supported the GMB union to launch legal action.
GMB has made a formal complaint to the UK unions regulator, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC). They are arguing that this narrow win in the ballot was a “stitch up” due to bullying, harassment and use of an unlawful QR code that swung the vote against workers.
Should our complaint be upheld, the CAC has the power to order a new ballot be held.
Amazon, one of the biggest and most powerful companies on the planet, ran one of the most aggressive union-busting campaigns the UK has ever seen.
For months before the GMB recognition application was even filed, Amazon flooded the warehouse with a deluge of new or temporary workers. This more than doubled the number of warehouse employees, from under 1,500 to over 3,000. Workers believe this diluted the pro-union vote.
After the union recognition ballot was announced in April, Amazon spent eight weeks negotiating the “access agreement”, which sets the terms for how the union can enter the warehouse to speak to workers about the ballot. During that time GMB wasn’t allowed into the warehouse to speak to workers. Amazon made full use of that time to give its own anti-union campaign an unfair head start.
Workers were instructed by managers to attend frequent information sessions that planted misinformation about unions. Managers would also corner workers on the shop floor suspected of being union members of “pro-union”, pressuring them to leave the union and vote no.
While Amazon’ was always careful to tell workers “it’s your choice”, the power imbalance between workers and managers carried the clear implicit threat that there would be consequences for voting in favour of the union.
Amazon’s campaign also used a one-click-to-quit-the-union QR code that, when scanned with a phone, could instantly cancel a worker’s membership. These codes were plastered all over the warehouse. They were on every table in the canteen, on huge screens in the centre of the building – even in every toilet stall.
We had already launched a separate legal challenge of the one-click-to-quit-the-union tool. GMB data shows that 71 workers scanned the code, resulting in 36 membership cancellations – more than double Amazon’s 15-vote margin of victory.
The fight goes on. The workers and everyone at the GMB should be really proud of what they’ve achieved. We are all ready for the next stage of this fight.
Foxglove has been supporting the fight for better pay and working conditions at the Coventry warehouse for years now. As well as supporting legal challenges, we’ve raised thousands of pounds in donations for the workers’ strike fund, and just last week funded pro-union bus stop adverts in key locations across the Coventry area.
Amazon is a tough adversary and we always knew this would be a long campaign – we’re sticking with the fight.
Along with GMB, we are considering our next steps. We can’t let this injustice be left unturned.
And if we can get within 15 votes of winning, despite Amazon’s shameless rule-breaking and stitching up the process, imagine what we could do if there was a fresh vote – without their dirty tricks.