Nearly 6,000 employees were eligible to vote on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Of the ballots cast, 1,798 votes opposed the union and 738 votes were in favor.
“I am disappointed but not surprised by the vote,” Sanders tweeted. “It is extraordinarily courageous for workers to take on one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful corporations, a company that spent unlimited sums of money to defeat the organizing effort.”
The RWDSU immediately said it will be filing a legal challenge against the outcome. The group is requesting a hearing by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) “to determine if the results of the election should be set aside because conduct by the employer created an atmosphere of confusion, coercion and/or fear of reprisals and thus interfered with the employees’ freedom of choice.”
The Vermont senator added, “Workers should not be intimidated or badgered by a company because they are exercising their constitutional right to form a union.”
