A union representing workers at an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse in Coventry, England withdrew its bid for official recognition and accused the tech giant of thwarting the unionization effort with “dirty tricks.”
The GMB union believed that its 800-strong membership at the facility was enough to meet the 50% threshold required to be recognized without a ballot, senior organizer Stuart Richards said in a statement. Amazon stated in December that there were 1,400 workers employees at the warehouse, Reuters reported.
After GMB submitted a formal application for union recognition on behalf of its members to the Central Arbitration Committee in May, the US tech giant declared there were 2,700 workers at the facility and the claim was accepted by the CAC.
The union said Amazon launched a recruitment drive that inflated headcount at the warehouse to counter the effort to organize.
“We estimate that’s more than £300,000 ($375,000) a week, just to stop workers having a voice in their workplace,” said Richards. “This is more than it would cost to pay the original workforce the £15 an hour they were asking for.”
Richards said the union would continue to fight for recognition, despite withdrawing the application in this instance.
In a statement, Amazon said it respects employees’ right to join a union. “We regularly recruit new team members, across the country and across the year, providing great new career opportunities for thousands of people and to meet customer demand,” the company said. “This year is no different.”
Workers at the Coventry site have been striking in recent weeks and plan further industrial action later this month. On Friday, staff at Amazon’s Rugeley and Mansfield warehouses will finish voting on whether they will also strike over pay.
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