Amazon union election tally expected to start, turnout 55%

U.S. regulators are expected to start tallying votes in Amazon.com Inc’s closely watched union election in Alabama later on Thursday or early Friday, union officials said.

The elections had voter turnout of about 55% the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) said in a statement on Wednesday.

More than 3,200 mail ballots were received by the U.S.National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in an election open toover 5,800 workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama,the union said. The workers are voting on whether to join theRWDSU and have their warehouse be the first Amazon facility everto unionize in the United States.

By comparison, 432 other mail-ballot elections frommid-March 2020 through September 2020 saw turnout of 72%,according to data disclosed by the NLRB in a decision last year.In the nearly six months prior to that — pre-dating the COVID-19outbreak in the United States — mail-ballot turnout was 55%, theNLRB decision document said.