Amazon now faces an outstanding legal challenge – known as an Inducement Claim – for pressuring workers into cancelling their union membership during the ballot period.
Amazon has been criticised for ‘union busting’ and using shameful tactics in its bid to block union recognition, after a bid by workers at its Coventry warehouse to achieve union recognition fell just short.
The GMB union said 49.5 per cent of 2,600 workers who voted at the site near the West Midlands city had backed union recognition, but the narrow miss means it will now have to wait three years to hold a new vote.
However, the vote has not been without controversy. The GMB union has accused Amazon of bombarding workers with an unrelenting campaign of anti-union messages by company bosses, including multiple anti-union seminars.
Amazon now faces an outstanding legal challenge – known as an Inducement Claim – for pressuring workers into cancelling their union membership during the ballot period.
The company has been accused of “pressuring” workers to cancel their union membership ahead of the ballot by leaving QR codes around the building that would generate an automatic email to the GMB.
Amanda Gearing, GMB Senior Organiser, said: “Our members have come agonisingly close to winning today and GMB will carry on the fight for the pay and recognition they deserve.
“Amazon bosses have created a culture of fear for low paid workers trying to improve their pay, terms and conditions. From day one Amazon have been relentless in their attacks on their own workforce.
“We’ve seen workers pressured into attending six hours of anti-union seminars on top of the fortune spent by Amazon bosses to scare workers.
“Workers have been told they will get no pay rise this year and will have to lose even more benefits if they vote for union recognition.
“This kind of union-busting has no place in 21st century Britain; but this is just the beginning. Amazon now faces a legal challenge, while the fire lit by workers in Coventry and across the UK is still burning”.
Amazon has rejected claims employees were forced to attend anti-union seminars claiming that attendance at meetings was ‘entirely voluntary’. It added that it was important for employees to have “a full understanding of what union recognition would mean” before voting.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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