Workers at Amazon’s RDU1 warehouse in Garner have voted against unionizing, rejecting a years-long organizing campaign that sought to make the facility the second unionized Amazon workplace in the United States.
In an election administered this week by the National Labor Relations Board, 2,447 workers voted against unionizing under the independent union Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (C.A.U.S.E.), while 829 voted in favor. Approximately 4,300 workers at the two million square-foot facility were eligible to vote.
After the result was announced Saturday afternoon, C.A.U.S.E. president Ryan Brown, who was fired in December over allegations of harassment that he says are false, addressed supporters outside the warehouse. He described RDU1 as a “temple of capitalism that exploits Black and brown people” and urged workers to keep fighting.
“There are lessons to be learned in losses that you can’t learn in victory,” Brown said. “There are lessons to be learned in the darkness that you can’t learn in the brilliance of the noon-day sun.”
The defeat comes after three years of organizing at RDU1, where workers have sought better wages, safer working conditions, and greater dignity on the job. C.A.U.S.E. had pushed for raising hourly wages to $30, implementing paid sick leave, adding hour-long paid lunch breaks, and securing peak season bonuses.
At the CAUSE camp outside the warehouse, as ballots were being counted, workers gathered under blue and yellow tents, grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken while hip-hop played from a portable speaker. The energy shifted when workers learned they would not be able to livestream the vote count as planned. While Amazon says there was no recording to stream, C.A.U.S.E. said Amazon used an “illegal off-duty access rule” to remove workers from the lobby who intended to share updates online.
The NLRB previously ruled that Amazon’s off-duty access policy violated the National Labor Relations Act. In an email to the INDY, Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards wrote that Amazon “did not break the law,” adding that both Amazon and C.A.U.S.E. had the same number of representatives participating in the actual count.
“We’re glad that our team in Garner was able to have their voices heard, and that they chose to keep a direct relationship with Amazon,” Hards continued. “We look forward to continuing to make this a great place to work together, and to supporting our teammates as they build their futures with us.”
The election followed an intense anti-union campaign at RDU1. In the days leading up to the election, Amazon held daily town halls next to the ship dock where voting took place, while TV screens throughout the warehouse played messages about unionization. Workers described the meetings as “vote no rallies.”
“The system did exactly what it was made to do. It brought us down,” said RDU1 worker Juno Rondelli, one of nine C.A.U.S.E. members who witnessed the ballot count.
Abe Walker, a sociology professor at Fayetteville State University, wrote in an email to the INDY that the fact that “Amazon was driven to such extreme measures by an unaffiliated, upstart union is a testament to the power workers wield when they organize—and underscores the company’s own vulnerabilities.”
“Even in defeat, C.A.U.S.E. has proven that a small but dedicated group with limited resources can successfully mobilize hundreds of workers and mount a serious challenge to the nation’s second-largest employer,” Walker wrote.
The lopsided vote tally at RDU1—with roughly three times as many workers voting against the union as for it—underscores the significant challenges facing attempts to unionize Amazon facilities. While workers at JFK8 in Staten Island made history by becoming the first unionized Amazon warehouse in 2022, other facilities that managed to trigger elections in recent years ultimately failed to secure enough votes, struggling against both corporate opposition and the challenges posed by high turnover rates.
The challenge was compounded in North Carolina, where union drives at major companies have rarely succeeded. The state’s “right-to-work” laws and restrictions on public sector collective bargaining have historically created significant hurdles for organized labor.
The months leading up to the election saw heightened tensions around the organizing effort. In December, the same month Amazon fired Brown, Garner police arrested three C.A.U.S.E. supporters who were distributing union information outside the facility. And last Sunday, on the eve of the election, a veteran organizer visiting from JFK8 was arrested at the C.A.U.S.E. camp. The organizer had been formally trespassed from the property earlier that day at Amazon’s request, and was arrested for second-degree trespassing when she returned that evening as a contingent from JFK8 was preparing to return to New York.
Despite the lost election, organizers say they plan to regroup and continue their fight.
“When people try to chop down a tree with an axe, it doesn’t go down with the first swing,” said RDU1 worker Italo Medelius. “When this campaign began, we were just a group of workers who didn’t know anything. Now we are in the belly of the beast. Now we know exactly what Amazon’s tactics are.”
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Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on X or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com. Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com