How Amazon Workers Are Now One Step Closer to a Union, Explained

A National Labor Relations Board officer has recommended a do-over election at the Amazon.com Inc. warehouse in Bessemer, Ala.—a stunning reproach of the e-commerce giant for allegedly manipulating the initial election earlier this year.

(1) What happened?

The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union held an election last spring to represent Amazon workers at the Bessemer fulfillment center. The organizing drive attracted global attention because it would have been the first Amazon warehouse in the U.S. to unionize—an achievement that could have opened the floodgates at warehouses nationwide.

But things didn’t go as planned for the RWDSU. The union got ...