The National Labor Relations Board on August 29 denied Amazon’s challenge to the election that saw its workers vote to unionize for the first time at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse in 2022.

The ruling certifies the election, and allows the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) to act as a representative in bargaining wages and conditions for the warehouse’s roughly 8,000 workers. But, according to Bloomberg Law, the union, which recently joined forces with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, faces a long road to reach the bargaining table with Amazon, which already plans to challenge the NLRB decision.

Workers at the Staten Island warehouse won 2,654 yes votes versus 2,131 no votes in the April 2022 election, hailed as a landmark by union leaders. Amazon argued in its filing with the NLRB that the vote was tainted by organizers and by the board’s regional office in Brooklyn that oversaw the election. The company called for a redo election, but pro-union experts said this was an effort to delay contract negotiations and potentially blunt some of the organizing momentum, according to the Guardian. Meanwhile, all attempts to unionize at other U.S.-based Amazon warehouses have failed.

Read More: Union Push at U.K. Amazon Warehouse Falls Short by 28 Votes

Amazon’s reputation as a tough place to work have not been much eased by its offering benefits such as health insurance coverage for some workers from day one, along with other financial assistance programs. In a typical example in July 2024, California’s Labor Commissioner, Lilia García-Brower, announced that Amazon broke the law by failing to tell workers they were subject to quotas on tasks performed in its warehouses, incurring fines of nearly $6 million. A November 2023 report from the Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) at the University of Illinois Chicago found that 41% of 1,484 Amazon workers they surveyed had been injured on the job.