On April 2, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Amazon illegally refused to recognize Amazon Labor Union Local 1 and ordered the company to begin negotiating for a collective bargaining agreement.
The local, based in Staten Island, New York, represents 5,000 workers employed at the JFK8 Amazon Fulfillment Center. April 1 marked four years since workers formed the union, initially independent and later affiliated with the Teamsters.
The Teamsters called the ruling a “historic victory for Amazon Teamsters nationwide and a testament to worker power.”
Amazon must now post a notice at JFK8 informing workers of their rights to organize.
The Amazon Labor Union was the first union of Amazon warehouse workers in the US. Amazon has refused to recognize it since workers voted to unionize in 2022. The monopoly faced a nationwide strike organized by the Teamsters in 2024.
“This company has used every resource it has to try and break us over the past four years, and it continues to fail because vicious rapacity is no match for collective action,” said Connor Spence, President of Amazon Labor Union-Teamsters Local 1.
Workers at JFK8 told The Worker that the ruling is a victory not only for Amazon workers, but organized labor as a whole.
“I’ve worked at Amazon JFK8 since 2018, and I’ve seen the conditions that pushed workers to organize,” a worker and ALU organizer told The Worker, citing the legal victory as a conquest of organized workers forcing Amazon to submit to their demands.
Amazon declared its plans to appeal, arguing that the NLRB representatives improperly influenced the union election.
Amazon, along with grocer chain Trader Joe’s and Elon Musk’s Space X, has joined forces in arguing the “unconstitutionality” of the NLRB in the aftermath of the 2022 union vote at JFK8. Amazon has faced more than 250 NLRB complaints alleging unlawful labor practices, which the company denies.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on challenges to the labor board in June 2026.
Image Credit: Amazon Teamsters.
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