A U.S. labor board official has recommended a rerun of a landmark Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) union election in Alabama where employees had voted overwhelmingly against making their warehouse the online retailer’s first to organize in the United States.
In the coming weeks, a regional director for the U.S. National Labor Relations Board will decide whether to order the rerun based on this recommendation, said an official on Monday with the board who asked not to be named.
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which workers rejected joining earlier this year by a more than 2-1 margin, had said Amazon illegally threatened staff with reduced benefits and compromised the election’s integrity via a ballot collection box it secured outside the warehouse.
The labor official’s recommendation in support of a new election focused on problems with the collection box, a person familiar with the matter said. Reuters has not seen a copy of the recommendation, which a labor board official said may be released Tuesday.