More than 3,200 Amazon employees at Bessemer, Alabama, fulfillment center cast ballots in historic union vote

Amazon workers Alabama union — Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

The NLRB has counted 3,215 votes in Amazon employees' historic union vote in Bessemer, Alabama.
RWDSU, the union under which employees would unionize, said Amazon challenged hundreds of ballots.
The public vote count could begin as early as Thursday, the RWDSU said in a statement.
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A total of 3,215 employees at Amazon's fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, cast ballots in a closely watched vote over whether to unionize, according to a press release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

The warehouse has more than 5,800 employees, meaning roughly 55% of employees voted.

The RWDSU, under which Amazon's warehouse workers would unionize, said the National Labor Relations Board has cleared all unchallenged ballots, but that "hundreds of challenged ballots" remain, most of which were challenged by Amazon, and that "more issues could impact the final results."

The NLRB will likely start its public count of the votes via video conference on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning Eastern Time, according to the RWDSU.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

In the contentious union vote, Amazon has repeatedly contested aspects of the voting process to the NLRB, which denied the company's request to install cameras monitoring the ballot room in the NLRB's Birmingham office.

Union organizers have also complained about Amazon's tactics, which have reportedly included enlisting local police to monitor organizers and requesting that traffic lights near the warehouse be reconfigured to limit the amount of time organizers have to speak with employees entering and leaving the facility.

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