The National Labor Relations Board has granted Amazon workers’ petition for a union election at RDU1 warehouse in Garner.
Workers will vote from February 10-15 on whether to unionize under Carolina Amazonians for Solidarity and Empowerment, or C.A.U.S.E., a worker-led movement that has been organizing at the warehouse since 2022.
C.A.U.S.E. announced the election Tuesday, and the NLRB confirmed it Wednesday.
The news comes a week after Amazon told the INDY it was “very skeptical” that C.A.U.S.E. had collected enough valid signatures to support an election petition. In response to the election announcement, Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards told the INDY: “We’ve always said that we want our employees to have their voices heard, and we hope and expect this process allows for that. We believe our employees favor opportunities to have their unique voice heard by working directly with our team.”
C.A.U.S.E. collected signatures from more than 30 percent of current RDU1 workers—the threshold required by the NLRB to trigger an election—in less than four months, a particularly remarkable feat given Amazon’s high turnover rates.
While Amazon has previously declined to disclose RDU1’s workforce size beyond saying “more than 2,000,” NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado told the INDY on Wednesday that 4,300 associates and process assistants will be eligible to vote. To win, C.A.U.S.E. will need support from more than half of those who cast ballots.
If successful, their top demands would include raising hourly wages to $30, implementing paid sick leave, adding hour-long paid lunch breaks, and securing peak season bonuses.
The election comes amid escalating tensions at the warehouse. In December, Amazon fired C.A.U.S.E. president Ryan Brown, citing violations of its anti-harassment policy—a move organizers view as retaliation. That same month, Garner police arrested three C.A.U.S.E. supporters distributing union information outside the facility.
“Until the world wakes up and everybody gets treated right, we got to keep fighting,” C.A.U.S.E. organizer Monique Ingram, who works a second job with DoorDash to supplement her Amazon income, said in a Tuesday release.
Only one Amazon facility—JFK8 in Staten Island—has successfully unionized, though several others have attempted. If successful, the RDU1 election will mark a historic win for labor organizing in the South, where union drives at major companies have rarely succeeded.
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