AMAZON workers at the Staten Island warehouse in New York State celebrated a historic victory on Friday as it became the first in the company’s 28-year history to win trade union recognition. 

Cheers of elation erupted as the final result was announced with workers voting 2,654 votes to 2,131 in favour of the Amazon Labour Union (ALU).

“We want to thank Jeff Bezos for going to space because while he was up there we were organising a union,” its founder Chris Smalls told the media pack.

The ALU was only formed in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, when workers complained of poor treatment by the company, America’s second-largest private employer after Walmart.

Amazon sacked Mr Smalls in March 2020 for what the online retail giant insisted was “violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk.”

Earlier this year he was detained after the company called the police as he met workers at the Staten Island store during the voting period. 

This was in breach of an agreement with the National Labour Relations Board in December not to limit workers’ ability to engage with their colleagues in non-work areas during non-work time, the union said.

Amazon however insisted that Mr Smalls was trespassing on company property and had been warned on a number of occasions. 

Vermont Senator and former Democratic Party presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders congratulated workers for their “extraordinary victory.

“They took on one of the most powerful corporations in America and showed that workers are sick and tired of being exploited while corporate profits soar.

“I believe it’s going to be a shot in the arm for this country’s labour movement,” he said. 

According to ALU vice-president Derrick Palmer Amazon workers in at least 18 states — along with three more warehouses in Staten Island — are starting unionisation organising drives.

Comparisons are being made with the Starbucks Workers United victory in Buffalo which sparked the so-called “union revolution” sweeping the country, with more than 100 stores filing with the National Labour Relations Board.

But a rerun of the election at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse in Alabama, ordered after the NLRB found the company of illegally interfering in the vote, appears to see the union falling short.

 The no vote was ahead 993 to 875 at the final count.  

Some 416 challenged ballots could however determine the outcome of the result.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “We’re disappointed with the outcome of the election in Staten Island because we believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees.

“We’re evaluating our options, including filing objections based on the inappropriate and undue influence by the NLRB that we and others (including the National Retail Federation and U.S. Chamber of Commerce) witnessed in this election.”