Amazon rejects claims it intimidated Alabama workers during union vote

Amazon has rejected claims it intimidated workers voting on whether to create the company’s first union at an Alabama warehouse.

Related: Amazon workers in Alabama vote against forming company’s first union

The overwhelming decision by employees in Bessemer, a suburb north of Birmingham, to rebuff organised representation was seen as a blow to the US labor movement. Union leaders alleged “egregious and blatantly illegal” conduct by Amazon during the closely watched vote.

In a statement posted to its website, Amazon said the claim by officials of the retail, wholesale and department store union (RWDSU) had no merit.

“It’s easy to predict the union will say that Amazon won this election because we intimidated employees, but that’s not true,” it said.

“Our employees heard far more anti-Amazon messages from the union, policymakers, and media outlets than they heard from us. And Amazon didn’t win – our employees made the choice to vote against joining a union.”

Even so the company, whose owner Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest man with an estimated fortune of $196bn, made a point of thanking workers at the warehouse, known as BHM1, for their verdict.

“There’s been a lot of noise over the past few months and we’re glad that your collective voices were finally heard,” it said. “In the end, less than 16% of the employees at BHM1 voted to join the RWDSU union.”

Among allegations levelled at Amazon were that it forced workers to attend anti-union meetings, bombarded them with text messages and papered the walls of warehouse bathrooms with anti-union posters.

Additionally, there was a wrangle over the erection of a mailbox outside the warehouse that Amazon encouraged workers to use for their votes, raising suspicions the company was seeking to influence the casting and counting of ballots. The Washington Post revealed that the US Postal Service installed the mailbox at Amazon’s urging in February, at the start of the seven-week balloting period.

“We won’t let Amazon’s lies, deception and illegal activities go unchallenged, which is why we are formally filing charges against all of the egregious and blatantly illegal actions taken by Amazon during the union vote,” the RWDSU president, Stuart Appelbaum, said in a statement.

“Amazon knew full well that unless they did everything they possibly could, even illegal activity, their workers would have continued supporting the union.”

The number of ballots being challenged by the union, 505, is not enough to reverse the result.

Bernie Sanders, the progressive Vermont senator who campaigned with workers, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the vote, in which 1,798 were opposed and 738 in favor from about 6,000 eligible employees.

“They were up against a company that was willing to spend vast sums of money and use every kind of tactic there is to defeat them,” Sanders said in a tweet, backing the union’s call for an investigation.

“The willingness of Amazon workers in Bessemer to take on the wealthiest man in the world and a powerful company in an anti-union state is an inspiration. It takes an enormous amount of courage to stand up and fight back, and they should be applauded.”

Sanders was a driving force in persuading Amazon to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour. At the time he thanked Bezos and said he hoped it would be a springboard for other large companies to do the same.

But negotiations to raise the national minimum hourly wage to $15 are stalled. Senate Democrats were forced to drop the proposal in order to secure enough votes to pass Joe Biden’s $1.9tn Covid recovery package.

Amazon insists it is committed to improving pay and conditions for its employees and those outside the company, and is willing to meet Sanders and other campaigners.

“We welcome the opportunity to sit down and share ideas with any policymaker who wants to pass laws ensuring that all workers in the US are guaranteed at least $15 an hour, healthcare from day one and other strong benefits,” its statement said.

“We believe that we can work better together instead of against each other to pass those important laws, and we hope that’s what will happen in the months and years ahead.”