After nearly three years of pushing for better pay and benefits, workers at an Amazon warehouse in North Carolina are set for a union election starting on February 10. 

Attempts to organize at Amazon's RDU1 warehouse in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina date back to 2022, months after the company's JFK8 Staten Island facility became the first in the country to successfully unionize. As part of those efforts, RDU1 workers have demanded a $5-an-hour raise, longer breaks, more time off, and improved mental health resources, The Guardian reports. On January 13, the National Labor Relations Board approved the petition from the warehouse's employees to hold a union election, which will take place February 10-15. 

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According to The Guardian, Amazon has fired at least three RDU1 employees who had led efforts to unionize at the warehouse over the last three years, including the founder of the movement, Ryan Brown. Brown has since claimed that he was terminated as retaliation for his role in organizing workers at the warehouse, while Amazon has denied those assertions, alleging that Brown was fired for making racist remarks to two managers in a verbal altercation in November 2024.

Unionizing has proven to be a steep climb for Amazon warehouse workers across the country, with previous votes having fallen short at facilities in Alabama and New York. In Bessemer, Alabama, union votes failed twice, although a federal judge ordered the company to allow a third election, over allegations that Amazon illegally interfered with the process. The company has faced numerous other accusations of union busting, including reported threats to fire employees for handing out union materials outside a Kentucky facility in 2023, and a ruling from a judge who found that JFK8 supervisors had threatened to withhold wages and benefit increases if workers voted to unionize in 2022.