The National Labor Relations Board has determined a group of Amazon workers at a Staten Island warehouse have enough signatures to move forward with a union election.

The news means the group of workers, known as the Amazon Labor Union, have passed a significant threshold for unionization. They could become the second Amazon facility in the country to hold a union election.  

An NLRB spokesperson told NY1 the union had  “a sufficient showing of interest” from workers to move forward in the process. In order to have a union election overseen by the national board, unions must show they have signatures supporting an election from 30% of the workers they are trying to unionize. 

Reached by phone, Chris Smalls, a former Amazon employee and head of the Amazon Labor Union, told NY1 his team was celebrating.

Last year, the Amazon Labor Union withdrew its initial petition from the NLRB after they could not meet the 30% threshold. In that proposal, the union was attempting to represent several warehouses on Staten Island. In the petition moving forward now, the union aims to represent workers at one warehouse only, known as JFK 8. In paperwork filed with the NLRB, the union estimates it would represent about 5,000 workers.

In response to the NLRB’s decision, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel sent NY1 the following statement: “We’re skeptical that there are a sufficient number of legitimate signatures and we’re seeking to understand how these signatures were verified. Our employees have always had a choice of whether or not to join a union, and as we saw just a few months ago, the vast majority of our team in Staten Island did not support the ALU.”

Both Amazon officials and representatives from the union will appear at a hearing in front of the national labor board in February.