Julia Love

(Reuters) –An Amazon.com (NASDAQ) worker group has fulfilled the conditions to organize a union election in a Staten Island warehouse, New York. A spokesperson from the U.S. National Labor Relations Board said Wednesday that the U.S. National Labor Relations Board had confirmed the news, opening the door for another labor dispute at the online retailer.

Kayla Blado, spokesperson for the NLRB, wrote via email that the Amazon Labor Union had received “a sufficient showing interest.” Unions need to show they have the support of at least 30% of eligible voters in order to be allowed to conduct an election under supervision of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board.

Chris Smalls, the president of the group who was a former employee at Staten Island Warehouse said “We are leaping for joy.” “We know it’s a long battle ahead of us, but to get over this hump, the show of interest, it’s definitely historic for us.”

The Amazon Labor Union, which is not affiliated with a major U.S. union, withdrew its petition https://www.reuters.com/world/us/amazon-worker-group-new-york-withdraws-petition-organize-union-2021-11-12 in November after the NLRB notified them that they had not collected enough signatures. Smalls reported that on Wednesday, the NLRB had informed them they cleared the obstacle.

Kelly Nantel from Amazon stated that they were seeking information to verify the signatures.

“We’re skeptical that there are a sufficient number of legitimate signatures,” Nantel said in a statement. “Our employees have always had a choice of whether or not to join a union, and as we saw just a few months ago, the vast majority of our team in Staten Island did not support the ALU.”

A hearing will be held by the NLRB on February 16 regarding the upcoming elections.

Amazon faces a growing number of efforts to organize its large workforce. Alabama workers will be voting next month on joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Amazon defeated the union campaign easily last year. However, the NLRB requested another vote because it found that the company had improperly interfered with the original contest.