image source, Getty Images
- Author, Zoe Conway and Faarea Masud
- Role, BBC news
GMB have narrowly lost their historic bid for union recognition at an Amazon warehouse in Coventry.
About 49.5% of employees voted in favor while 50.5% voted against. The union needed a majority to vote yes.
If GMB wins, it would be the first time Amazon has recognized a union in the UK.
The online giant would be forced to negotiate with workers over issues such as wages and conditions.
Amazon said in a statement that it places “tremendous value on dealing directly” with employees.
“We look forward to continuing this journey with our team in Coventry,” he added.
GMB told the BBC that it was considering trying to win recognition at the Coventry site again and that discussions were underway about its strategy.
The process would involve convincing the Central Arbitration Committee, which is in charge of overseeing applications for recognition, that the range of workers eligible to vote has changed.
“Union Busting”
The GMB, which lost by 28 votes, said its efforts to gain recognition fell “painfully short” and accused Amazon of “union-busting”.
She said the warehouse contained “anti-union messages from company bosses, including several anti-union seminars.”
He added that “the fire lit by workers in Coventry and across the UK is still burning” and that unions will “continue to fight” for low paid workers.
The union’s fight for recognition has been described as a David and Goliath battle, with workers facing stiff opposition from the online giant.
It started with a defiant show of defiance in the summer of 2022 after Amazon offered workers a 35p to 50p an hour pay rise.
Workers toiling in warehouses during the Covid pandemic said it was an insult and in Coventry a small group of angry workers spontaneously walked out and protested outside a fulfillment centre.
Then the GMB got involved and called for workers to unionise.
Over the past year, it has organized a further 37 days of protest action and gradually increased its membership to more than 1,400 members out of an estimated 3,000-plus center staff through picket line recruitment.
In April, the union launched a legal challenge against Amazon, alleging it used underhand tactics to encourage members to drop their union memberships.
She said Wednesday that the lawsuit would continue.
As part of the challenge, GMB says Amazon put up posters in distribution centers with QR codes that generated an email to the union’s membership department asking them to cancel their membership.
Amazon responded by saying that “employees have been telling us they want to cancel their memberships but haven’t found a way to do so, so we’ve provided information to help them.
“We have always been clear that union membership is an employee’s personal choice.”
Amazon, which is one of the UK’s largest private sector employers with 75,000 staff, has made it clear throughout that it does not want to recognize unions and that it wants to maintain direct communication with its employees.
After Wednesday’s vote, she went on to reiterate that “daily conversations” with employees are “an essential part of our work culture.”
“We value this direct relationship, as do our employees. That’s why we’ve always worked hard to listen to them, act on their feedback and invest heavily in great pay, benefits and skills development,” the firm added.
The GMB says it is surprised by what it sees as the fearlessness of the largely immigrant workforce, many of whom have recently arrived from South Asia.
Union organizers estimate that just 5% of Coventry workers were born in Britain and campaign leaflets have been translated into 12 different languages.
At first, they say, many were afraid to get involved, but as the strikes continued and people saw that workers who joined the pickets did not face disciplinary action, their confidence grew.
The unions hope that the government will strengthen their organizing power.
Labor promised legislation in today’s King’s Speech to make it easier for unions to win recognition by lowering the threshold required to win, and to make it easier for union officials to recruit in workplaces.
“The Bad Side of History”
The General Secretary of the Congress of Trade Unions, Paul Nowak, said that despite taking on one of the “world’s biggest corporate giants”, trade unionists in Coventry had “narrowly missed out” on securing recognition.
“As Labor ushers in a new era of stronger workers’ rights, companies like Amazon are on the wrong side of history,” he added.
But Gregor Gall, professor of industrial relations at the University of Glasgow, questioned whether the GMB had the resources to take the fight to other centers in the Amazon.
“The cost of union organizing is very high. The GMB had full-time officers on it. We don’t necessarily see unit organizing elsewhere,” he said.
Professor Gallo’s caution is understandable given what has happened in the United States.