NYC The Next Amazon Union Battle_clean

The next union battle at Amazon is shaping up in New York City. Organizers say they have collected signatures from more than 2,000 employees at four Amazon facilities in Staten Island. The bid to establish the Amazon Labor Union in New York City is the second attempt in the past year to form a union at the nation's largest online retailer. In April, workers at an Alabama facility overwhelmingly rejected forming a union. The union drive in New York is working without the help of a national sponsor and is being led by a former Amazon employee. Organizers need to collect signatures from at least 30% of the workers — about 7,000 in four Staten Island warehouses — who would be covered by the resulting collective bargaining agreement. Amazon officials say the company's employees have a choice of whether or not to join a union but “we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees.” The union efforts in Staten Island come as Amazon is on a hiring binge. It announced in September it wants to hire 125,000 delivery and warehouse workers and is paying new recruits an average of $18 an hour in a tight job market. That’s in addition to the 150,000 seasonal workers it plans to bring on this season.