Amazon union organizers call off election attempt at a California warehouse

The Amazon Labor Union has withdrawn its petition to hold an election at an Amazon fulfillment center in Moreno Valley, California, according to Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board. It’s a sharp-turn around for organization efforts at the facility, known as ONT8; the petition was filed on October 12th, and the NLRB had confirmed that there was a sufficient showing of interest to proceed with the election, according to The Los Angeles Times’ Suhauna Hussain.

It’s unclear why the petition was withdrawn or if it has any relation to the ALU’s recent loss in Albany, New York. The withdrawal request isn’t currently publicly available, but petitioners don’t have to tell the NLRB why they’re withdrawing, according to Blado. The union didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. Had the election proceeded, an estimated 800 full- and part-time employees would’ve been able to vote on whether to organize with the ALU.

Last year, the union won an election to organize Amazon’s JFK8 facility in Staten Island, where it’s currently trying to negotiate a collective bargaining contract with the company. However, it’s struggled to repeat the historic victory, losing an election at the neighboring LDJ5 facility in May and another in Albany earlier this month. ALU’s president, Christian Smalls, called the latter election a “sham,” saying that it “wasn’t free and fair.”