It was big news in April of 2022 when a small private union led by ex-Amazon workers called the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) had won a vote to organize in a fulfillment center in Staten Island, NY.
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At the time, it appeared that Amazon would see its first union shop in the US, which labor leaders had hopes would spread to other Amazon fulfilment centers across the country.
It isn’t working out that way. The ALU in New York has yet to force a contract on Amazon, and doesn’t appeared to have the wherewithal to get it done. Lacking any dues payments from workers as a result, and with the donations that had kept it alive drying up, times became tough for the ALU.
Chris Smalls, ALU president, was fired by Amazon for breaking company rules regarding union activities. He enjoyed a brief moment of fame for the success at getting a vote to happen and then winning it at the Staten Island FC, all without the umbrella of a large national union.
After the apparent win, Small met with labor organizers around the US working to unionize other sites to share his approach and keys to success.
But there were setbacks early on. In October, 2022, the ALU lost a union vote at another Amazon Staten Island FC.
With all that, in June of this year Amazon Labor Union members voted to affiliate with the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Let’s see if they can get the job done.
Meanwhile, the legal battles over all this continue.
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 Last week, according to Reuters, Amazon sued a US National Labor Relations Board, alleging it illegally interfered in that 2022 union election at the Staten Island FC. The suit also claims the agency's structure violates the US Constitution.
The lawsuit was filed in San Antonio, Texas, federal court. It looks to block the National Labor Relations Board from deciding a case that could force Amazon to bargain with the union after the 2022 successful union vote.
Last week, the NLRB affirmed the results of the election, rejecting Amazon's earlier claims that the vote was tainted by demonstrations held by workers and union organizers and that board officials who oversaw the voting were biased toward the union, again according to Reuters.
Amazon's new claims are that NLRB’s in-house enforcement proceedings violate the constitutional separation of powers and the company's right to a jury trial.
Amazon is not alone in that legal perspective. About 20 other companies including rocket maker SpaceX, Starbucks and Trader Joe's, have made similar claims against the board in pending lawsuits and administrative cases.
Amazon's lawsuit, Reuters said, also alleges that the NLRB's five members, who are appointed by the president, are improperly shielded from being removed at will, and that the board's unique structure where it serves as a prosecutor, judge, and jury in certain cases violates the US Constitution.
Add it all up, and the timeline of when the Staten Island FC might organize continues to be unclear.
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