If you thought unions were bad news when it was Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) on the line, imagine how it will go when it’s Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) involved. Already, unions are making a play for Amazon workers in the UK, and if it spreads, this could be a serious matter. Amazon is down in Friday afternoon’s trading, mostly over what a unionized Amazon might look like.
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This time, the unionization effort landed at a Coventry warehouse, to which GMB officially applied for recognition. It’s not the first, either, but rather the latest; two other warehouses are currently considering unionization, with the results of a staff vote expected on June 9. Previously, Amazon lost its bid to prevent a union at a Staten Island warehouse in the United States. For its part, Amazon insists that it provides both “competitive” pay and comprehensive benefits in the U.S. and the U.K. as well.
Earlier efforts haven’t fared so well for Amazon either. California delivery drivers won a union operation back in late April, but the extent of that victory is, at best, unclear. After all, the drivers in question report to Amazon for scheduling. They wear Amazon-branded vests and drive Amazon-branded vans, and can even be fired by Amazon. But their actual employer is a third-party contractor called Battle-Tested Strategies. While Battle-Tested Strategies acknowledged the union voluntarily, it’s hard to say where it will go from there.
Yet, this rising unionization push hasn’t much impacted analysts’ opinions. Currently, Amazon is rated a Strong Buy by analyst consensus based on 35 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months. Further, with an average price target of $134.24, Amazon stock also offers 22.27% upside potential.
