In a positive development for unions, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled on April 1, 2026 that Amazon unlawfully refused to recognize the Staten Island-based Amazon Labor Union-International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1 (ALU-IBT 1) and ordered it to bargain with the Teamsters.
“Four years ago, Amazon workers at JFK8 won an NLRB election. Now they have become the first group ever to force the company to recognize their union,” said Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien. “This fight is far from over but this ruling from the NLRB is an historic victory for Amazon Teamsters nationwide and a testament to worker power.”
The struggle began when more than 5,000 warehouse employees at the JFK8 facility in Staten Island formed their union on April 1, 2022. Two years later the Amazon workers became affiliated with the Teamsters Union as ALU-IBT Local 1. Throughout the entire time, the NLRB repeatedly ruled that Amazon had committed unfair labor practices and tried to coerce the workers in an attempt to end the organizing effort.
“Amazon’s strategy these last few years has been to delay, delay, delay – and the NLRB confirmed it because the law is not on their side,” stated Randy Korgan, Director of the Teamsters Amazon Division. “Amazon Teamsters know that this company will try to do anything it can to worm out of its responsibilities. The Teamsters will continue to build worker power at Amazon and hold the company accountable wherever it violates the law.”
This announcement follows closely on the union’s recent victory, which upheld Amazon Teamsters’ right to strike without retaliation. In a landmark settlement mediated by the NLRB, Amazon agreed that it would no longer retaliate against workers who exercise their right to strike.
In an effort to deter workers from striking, Amazon had been deducting Unpaid Time (UPT) from those who strike. The NLRB ruled that Amazon had illegally taken striking workers’ UPT, which exists as a bank of hours that Amazon workers can use for unscheduled leave and emergencies. Amazon could terminate workers who ran out of UPT.
Amazon’s settlement with the Teamsters restored the illegally deducted time to affected workers and ensured that all Amazon workers could strike in the future without losing their UPT. The settlement covers all of Amazon’s 1,300 facilities nationwide, and Amazon is required to post a notice to workers informing them of their rights.
The news is not all good for labor unions since the NLRB now has a Republican majority. On March 6, 2026, in Brown-Forman Corp. v. NLRB, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to enforce a Cemex bargaining order and sent the case back for NLRB review. During the Biden administration, the NLRB in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, 372 NLRB No. 130 (2023) ruled that employers could be ordered to bargain with unions if employers engage in unlawful labor practices such as threatening to close a worksite or firing union supporters during an organizing campaign, even when a union loses an election or one has not been held because that conduct can improperly discourage workers from unionizing.
Prior to Cemex, the Supreme Court’s 1969 Gissel ruling held that employers could be forced to bargain after a union loses an election only if their unlawful conduct was so severe that it rendered a re-run election pointless.
In Brown-Forman, the court found that the NLRB exceeded its authority when it overturned Gissel precedent. The Biden era NLRB had found that the company illegally interfered with a union election campaign in 2022 at its Woodford Reserve distillery in Lexington, Kentucky. The Board ruled that the company committed an unfair labor practice when it gave workers a raise of $4 an hour, more vacation time and a free bottle of bourbon to discourage unionizing after it became clear that the union could win an election. The union ultimately lost the election, 45-14. The NLRB determined that, because the benefits granted to the workers could not be undone, it was not possible to hold a fair election. Instead, the Board issued a Cemex order requiring Brown-Forman to bargain with the union which the 6th Circuit has now declined to enforce.
The Cemex case itself is on appeal at the Ninth Circuit, and the Ninth Circuit has not yet ruled. If
there is a split in the circuits, it is likely that the United States Supreme Court will hear the case.
In another blow to labor unions, in a February 26, 2026 ruling in Longmont United Hospital and National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United, the NLRB declined to overrule ExCellO Corp., 185 NLRB 107 (1970), a case which limited remedies when an employer refuses to bargain to test a union’s certification. and the court ultimately upholds the certification.
In Longmont United Hospital, former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo urged the NLRB to overrule ExCellO and authorize a new monetary remedy requiring employers to compensate employees for the “lost opportunity to bargain,” a significant expansion that would have imposed economic damages where an employer lawfully refuses to bargain to obtain judicial review of the agency’s certification of a union. The Board majority consisting of two Trump appointees, reaffirmed ExCellO. The lone Biden appointee on the NLRB dissented.
The NLRB has also brought back its 2020 joint employer rule, which makes it very difficult to hold joint employers liable. The 2020 rule requires that businesses must exercise “substantial direct and immediate” control over core workplace conditions — such as wages, scheduling, and benefits — before they can be classified as a joint employer for liability purposes. It’s a higher threshold to meet than the Biden-era standard requiring that a business only potentially be able to influence these conditions.
In a small victory for unions, days before the NLRB decision in Longmont United Hospital, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Board to reaffirm Browning-Ferris which expanded the test for joint employment. The case was then remanded to the NLRB, which complied with the court’s ruling regarding the limited facts of the particular case. Despite the victory for the union, the NLRB will apply the limited definition of joint employer until there is no longer a Republican majority on the Board.
Although the NLRB Amazon ruling is a bright spot for labor unions, we can expect more rulings
unfavorable to unions from the currently constituted NLRB in the foreseeable.
Ruth Silver Taube is the Supervising Attorney of the Workers’ Rights Practice at the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center at Santa Clara University School of Law, Coordinator of the Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition, Legal Services Provider Co-Chair of the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking, a delegate to the Santa Clara County’s Human Trafficking Commission, and the Supervising Attorney of the Santa Clara County Office of Labor Standards Legal Advice Line. Before law school, she was a journeyman machinist, President of International Association of Machinists Local 547, and Senior Field Representative for SEIU Local 535. She previously taught at Njala University in Sierra Leone with CUSO, the Canadian Peace Corps.
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