Amazon Claims New York Union Organizers Bribed Workers with Weed to Gain Votes

Lucas NolanApril 11, 2022

Amazon is claiming that New York union organizers gave marijuana to workers in an attempt to secure their unionization votes. Recreational marijuana is legal in New York, and a lawyer for the Amazon Labor Union responded that handing out cannabis is “no different than distributing free t-shirts and it certainly did not act to interfere with the election.”

Business Insider reports that Amazon is alleging that New York union organizers provided free marijuana to workers in an effort to convince them to vote in favor of the union. The objection is just one of many made by Amazon on Friday as the company aims to overturn a recent vote that created the first union in the history of the tech giant.

Alma Delia Garcia of New York Communities for Change speaks during a protest organized by New York Communities for Change and Make the Road New York in front of the Jeff Bezos’ Manhattan residence in New York on December 02, 2020. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)

A recreational marijuana smoker indulges in smoking weed on April 14, 2020 in the Bushwick section of the Brooklyn borough of New York City. As some smokers turn to smoking weed to ease their stress during the coronavirus pandemic, some doctors are warning that cannabis can cause airway inflammation that could cause complications should a user become a victim of COVID-19. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

A recreational marijuana smoker indulges in smoking weed on April 14, 2020 in the Bushwick section of the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced on April 1 that a majority of workers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York, voted to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). Amazon is now challenging the vote and claims that the ALU and NLRB suppressed voter turnout.

Amazon made a filing on Friday in which it questioned the ALU’s methods to win the unionization vote. Amazon’s lawyers state that ALU organizers distributed cannabis to workers ahead of the vote and that the NLRB “cannot condone such a practice as a legitimate method of obtaining support for a labor organization.”

In 2021, it was made legal for New Yorkers love the age of 21 to use recreational marijuana. Eric Milner, a lawyer for the ALU, told the Associated Press that organizers handing out cannabis was “no different than distributing free t-shirts and it certainly did not act to interfere with the election.”

Amazon claimed in a previous filing that union organizers also interfered with employees waiting in line to vote and threatened immigrant workers that they may lose their benefits if they did not vote in favor of the union. Connor Spence, the ALU’s vice president of membership, said that Amazon’s claims “have no merit” and are intended to “suppress a democratic outcome.” Spence added: “We urge Amazon to cease these childish legal games, respect the voices of their workers, and engage in behavior that is more becoming of ‘Earth’s Best Employer.’”