In a historic union victory in Staten Island, New York, warehouse workers voted to form the first union at the Amazon facility in the United States.

Employees at the company’s performance center, known as JFK8, will join a new independent working group, the Amazon Labor Union, or ALU, following elections to the National Labor Relations Council. The number caused surprising concern during the vote count on Thursday and Friday. Won from 2654 to 2131.

If the Labor Council confirms the results so that they can formally announce them, then the world’s largest online retailer will be obliged to deal with a union representing several thousand of its employees that it has not yet experienced, otherwise in another country.

Amazon said in a statement it could protest the election results, accusing the Labor Council of “inappropriate and improper” influence. The company said “they value our options”.

“We are disappointed with the Staten Island election result because we believe a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees,” the company said in a statement.

After the count ended on Friday, union members and supporters gathered on the sidewalk outside the Labor Council office in Brooklyn. They wore red shirts with the union logo, celebrated and sang “ALU! ALLU! ALLU! “

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Labor Council conducted a separate vote count at another Amazon facility considering the union, in Bessemer, Alabama. Workers voted 875 to 993 against joining the retail, wholesale and department store union, but more than 400 other ballots were contested and remain unopened, meaning the union could still win once the council determines. the authority of these voters.

In the case of Staten Island, Amazon could appeal the election results if it decides to make allegations of misconduct. In response to the company’s complaints, Kayla Blooddo, a spokeswoman for the board of directors, said the NLRB is an independent law enforcement agency and all of its actions against Amazon are “consistent with this mandate of Congress. “

Amazon strongly opposes attempts to organize unions, flooding workers with anti-union messages and frequently holding meetings with workers to prevent them from signing union cards or voting for union representation. union. A leak released by Amazon to the Department of Labor on Thursday indicates that the company spent $ 4.3 million last year on employment consultants helping employers beat organized disks.

Until this week, these strategies work.

The success of labor on Staten Island is even more remarkable thanks to the union More likely roots. The Amazon Labor Union was formed last year by a group of workers in New York. It is led by Chris Smalls, a former Amazon employee whose company is controversial Dismissed from job At the start of the pandemic then talk about safety concerns and Derrick Palmer, who works at JFK8.

Most unions have large staff, including professional organizers, who pay workers ’wages to run the union. But the ALU has not been around long enough to create union resources. Smalls, Palmer, and pro-union workers tirelessly organize outside the Staten Island facility, prepare the kitchen, talk to rural workers, and encourage them to sign union cards.

The group fought for the company Tic knock At Twitter And raised funds through GoFundMe.

“Words can’t describe this feeling,” Smalls told reporters in Brooklyn on Friday.

He thanked Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos said of the galaxy explosion: “Because back then, we wrote to people.

Since Amazon released Smalls in 2020, ცე cy According to internal company records show that Amazon will destroy it when its termination is discussed. The company’s general adviser David Zapolski described Smalls as “not smart or verbal” and said Amazon seemed more credible than Smalls in a public battle.

After counting the votes on Friday, Smalls posted a funny tweet to remind Bezos and Zapolski of his treatment.

It was Smalls Busy Last Month After food deliveries surfaced to workers for alleged disruption to the Staten Island warehouse, which led to poor publicity for Amazon. The dealer said he called Smalls police, but not the other two ALU members, who were also arrested.

Winning the union election was one of a series of recent union successes at public -facing companies, including Starbucks and REI retailers overseas. So far, workers at eight Starbucks stores in three states have joined the union and about 150 more stores have applied for election.

Union membership in the United States is at its lowest of all, with only 6.1% of private sector workers owned by unions. Trade union activists have been debating how to change the numbers on the flag for years. As of this week, unions have had a bad experience holding elections as an Amazon warehouse.

More than 8,000 workers could vote in JFK8, with Friday’s result being the biggest election victory in years.

The young union now faces a bigger challenge: negotiating its first collective bargain with one of the world’s most powerful companies. It can take years for a union to get an initial contract and some will never be able to do so. Amazon will have a strong incentive not to offer the union a decent deal, for fear it will only strengthen the union elsewhere.

Small last year Told HuffPost One of Amazon’s biggest organizational challenges is addressing the company’s high turnover. Many workers, he said, did not take long to become union supporters.

“That’s the name of the game on Amazon: rental and release,” he said at the time. They know that people don’t want to linger here, that these jobs are destroying them physically and mentally.

The ALU demanded a minimum wage of $ 30 per hour to cope with the high cost of living in New York, as well as increased job security. Amazon workers must adhere to the company’s known production quotas, otherwise they could lose their jobs without having to change what Smalls says.

“We ask to be Treated like a human being “And not just replaceable add-ons for robots and algorithms that manage warehouses,” the ALU website says.

The union first petitioned the workers ’council to hold elections last year and then withdrew it to vote. After collecting more signatures, the union returned to the council to file a petition with substantial workers ’support.

At the end of this month, another smaller facility on Amazon, Staten Island, is expected to vote on whether to join the ALU.

PORTLAND, ORE (AP)-Dozens of flights from the west coast were canceled by Alaska Airlines on Friday, the same day when on-duty pilots ventured into a standoff on the airline’s three-year contract.

The airline canceled more than 100 Alaska Airlines flights, including 66 to Seattle, 20 to Portland, Oregon, 10 to Los Angeles and seven to San Francisco, according to flight tracking site flightaware.com. The union’s website says the pilots mobilized and staked out in all of these cities.

Airline Pilots Association pilots also protested last week in New York, ahead of the airline’s investor relations day, as a prelude to the picket line on Friday. Those in the picket line on Friday said they were out of duty and canceled Alaska.

Cancellations and picking occur after air travel moves to pre-pandemic levels and demand rises as many Americans go on spring break for long-delayed vacations. Failed travelers posted information on social media about false vacation plans and said there was a 10-hour wait to speak to an airline representative about flight schedules. Many said they could not fly for a day or two.

Robin Doldy, of Battle Ground, Washington, is scheduled to fly to Missouri on Friday to attend his father -in -law’s funeral with his wife, son, and son -in -law. The family received a letter from Alaska at midnight – six hours before the flight – stating that their flight had been canceled.

Doldi stopped the airline for a few hours on Friday and then at Portland International Airport, only to see that Alaska couldn’t take them to the funeral on time – or even within 10 hours in the city.

“We would have been next in the flow if it was a vacation, but it’s something with a deadline that we can’t change, and it’s frustrating,” he said in a phone interview. “My wife is by her side. His father was his best friend. “

Doldy, who was supposed to deliver the sermon, instead attended the live funeral unilaterally with his wife from home, he said.

“What I think is the most annoying, to be honest, we were not informed in advance that this was an opportunity. “We can make other arrangements in advance,” Dold said. “It’s something that’s really frustrating.”

The pilots had been negotiating a contract with the airline for nearly three years and both sides had stopped.

The union said Alaska Airlines was not sufficiently prepared to return to air travel after the pandemic and did not take the necessary steps to retain or attract pilots when demand returned. Issues that still need to be addressed include occupational safety, labor rules and quality of life provisions that ensure flexibility and a reasonable schedule, the statement said, while the current pilot contract lags far behind comparable airlines. in some major divisions.

Alaska Airlines said Friday that it values ​​its pilots and respects their right to the picket line, but must also negotiate a deal that will allow the airline to maintain growth and profitability. Alaska Airlines is working to recover $ 2.3 billion in damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said.

The airline said it is currently offering a competitive salary to its pilots. For example, the average salary of an Alaska Airlines captain is currently $ 341,000 per year, the airline said.

Associated Press videographer Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles contributed to this report.