The Amazon union vote in Bessemer, Alabama, may rest on a mailbox

Amazon sent workers texts encouraging them to use the “secure mailbox,” which it said would be “easy, safe, and convenient.” The mailbox is located on Amazon grounds, where workers are notoriously under constant surveillance — that surveillance was actually one of the reasons workers cited for forming a union in the first place.The mailbox was Amazon’s second choice. The company had first pushed to have ballot drop boxes placed on site, but the NLRB rejected that plan because it would give the appearance that Amazon was in charge of the vote and intimidate workers into voting Amazon’s way.But after the United States Postal Service (USPS) approved of and installed the mailbox, Amazon erected a large tent around it and added signage encouraging employees to use it to mail in their ballots — despite the USPS denying Amazon’s request to place a “vote here” sticker on the mailbox itself. The RWDSU saw it differently, saying in its objection to the NLRB that it “created the impression that the collection box was a polling location and that the employer had control over the conduct of the mail ballot election.” Despite RWDSU’s issues with the mailbox — union president Stuart Appelbaum told AL.com in February that it was unprecedented employer behavior and “pretty disgusting” — the union decided to go forward with the vote anyway.