ANALYSIS: A Win at Amazon Would Be Labor’s Largest in 20 Years

The union organizing election currently under way at Amazon is historic, and it is big. But it is also historically big.

The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union is seeking to organize 5,800 warehouse workers in the e-commerce giant’s Bessemer, Alabama facility. If the RWDSU prevails, the Amazon vote will result in the largest number of workers gaining union representation in a single NLRB election since 1991.

But the scope of the election underscores an intrinsic problem for the union: Successful organizing efforts of this size are so rare at the NLRB, they’re almost unheard-of.

Since Bloomberg Law started tracking ...