LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Workers supporting a union drive at Amazon's Campbellsville, Kentucky, warehouse are linking with the upstart union behind the massive retailer's only organized warehouse on Staten Island, New York.
The Campbellsville workers hope to establish a chapter of the Amazon Labor Union, according to Matt Littrell, 22, a picker at the Kentucky fulfillment center and the chairman of the organizing committee for the Campbellsville effort.
The ALU, fresh off its April 1 victory to organize the Staten Island warehouse, is a more compelling fit for Campbellsville Amazon workers than long-established unions such as International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which had been involved in the effort previously, Littrell said.
"Whenever we've tried to go with different unions in the past and collaborate with them, it has been this kind of, boring, slow, 20th Century thing that people are just not really interested in," Littrell said Thursday. "And so, the prospect of a 100% worker-led union is what people can get behind."
The campaign at Campbellsville, one of Amazon's oldest warehouses, remains in early stages. Supporters have not filed paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board to ask for a vote on whether to establish the union.
The workers in Campbellsville are making "good progress" building support and could petition the NLRB for a vote "maybe within the next six months," Littrell told WDRB News.
BREAKING: Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Kentucky are officially unionizing with Amazon Labor Union.Workers in Campbellsville, KY will become the first local chapter of @amazonlabor outside Staten Island.The lead organizer says Amazon is already spying on union activity. pic.twitter.com/V8jNUfASEr
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) July 7, 2022
A wave of union drives at Amazon, the country's second-biggest private employer, have had mixed results. Workers at the company's JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island voted to establish the company's first union on April 1. Amazon is protesting the validity of the election.
Before the landmark election in New York, workers at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama appeared to twice reject a union, but the more recent election in March is in dispute. The Alabama effort is supported by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
Meanwhile, workers at a second Staten Island warehouse voted against becoming part of the ALU in May.
The Campbellsville facility, called SDF1, is small compared to other Amazon fulfillment centers. About 800 workers would be eligible to participate in a potential election, Littrell said.
The warehouse, from which the online retailer packs and ships orders, was established in 1999, according to a Kentucky business database — about five years after Jeff Bezos founded the company in Bellevue, Washington.
"Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have. As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees," Amazon said in an emailed statement. "Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
Littrell said the company has been hostile to the organizing effort, leading him to file three complaints with the National Labor Relations Board in recent months.
He told the Washington Post last month that the company called the police on him while he was distributing union fliers outside the facility.
