Victory for Amazon as workers reject union

The fledgling union effort at Amazon was dealt a setback on Monday.

Workers at an Amazon warehouse located on the New York City borough of Staten Island have voted overwhelmingly to reject forming a union. Employees cast 380 votes to be represented by a union and 618 voted against it, according to the National Labor Relations Board. About 1,600 workers at the facility (LDJ5) were eligible to vote. (The results still need to be formally certified by the NLRB.).

The vote was a setback for the independent Amazon Labor Union. Last month, the same union won an historic victory when workers at the larger, nearby Amazon warehouse voted in favor of the union. Amazon is challenging the results of the election, a process that could take months.

Despite the setback on Staten Island, the ALU, which is led by ex-employee Chris Smalls, vowed to keep organizing.

The organizing will continue at this facility and beyond,” the group wrote on Twitter. “The fight has just begun.