US judge orders Amazon to bargain with Teamsters union

A US labour judge has ruled that Amazon violated federal law by refusing to recognise the Teamsters union at a San Francisco delivery centre, where the union secured majority worker support. The decision orders the tech giant to collectively bargain with staff at its California warehouses under the 'Cemex' precedent, which mandates bargaining with groups holding legitimate majority support.

The ruling is based on a precedent established during the Biden administration, which requires companies to bargain with labour groups that sign up a legitimate majority of staff or ask the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) to hold an election. Amazon did neither of those actions following the show of support, leading the judge to determine that federal law had been breached.

Amazon has vowed to appeal the decision to the NLRB, arguing the precedent is unlawful. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company said it disagreed with the administrative law judge's decision and was confident a court would overrule it. The retailer denied any wrongdoing and stated it believed the Cemex precedent was unlawful.

The company fears the ruling could be overturned by a newly constituted NLRB board dominated by Trump appointees. Senator Elizabeth Warren has described the stripping down of the board by Trump appointees as illegal, but the potential shift in composition could allow the board to overturn the current ruling and use the new precedent to set back recent unionisation gains made by Amazon workers.

The Teamsters organisation described Amazon’s strategy as "delay, delay, delay." While Amazon workers have made unionisation inroads previously, including an NLRB election win by Staten Island workers and union formation by Philadelphia Whole Foods workers, neither of those efforts has led to collective bargaining.