UK warehouse workers vote against unionisation, with GMB alleging Amazon interference in the vote
A UK union has taken legal action against Amazon, the US e-commerce giant, alleging the company improperly influenced warehouse workers in Coventry, central England, to vote against forming a union. Workers at the warehouse in Coventry voted down the union on Wednesday, making it the first location outside the US to force Amazon to negotiate on labor terms. The GMB union, which narrowly lost the vote, with 49.5% of the 2,600 workers voting in favor and 50.5% against, said in a complaint filed on Wednesday with the UK’s employment regulator that Amazon had improperly questioned workers about whether they supported unionization and posted signs around the site with QR codes that workers could use to cancel their union membership. If the Central Arbitration Committee, an independent body that decides on collective bargaining rights, accepts the GMB’s complaint, it could order a new union vote at the Coventry site. Amazon said it did not believe the GMB had any legal basis for its complaints about the union vote process.