The union looking for to symbolize staff at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama stated late Wednesday that there have been 3,215 ballots solid — or about 55 p.c of the roughly 5,800 staff who had been eligible to vote.

The ballots are anticipated to be counted by hand beginning both Thursday afternoon or Friday morning in the National Labor Relations Board’s workplace in Birmingham, in accordance with the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union. Hundreds of ballots are being contested, largely by Amazon, the union stated.

The vote counting can be proven on a videoconference name to a small variety of outsiders, together with journalists, in addition to representatives from the union and the corporate.

Union elections are usually held in individual, however the labor board decided that the election ought to be carried out by mail to attenuate dangers through the pandemic. The ballots had been despatched to staff in early February and had been due on the company earlier than March 30. Since then, Amazon and the union have had an opportunity to problem whether or not specific employee had been eligible to vote.

When the general public counting is finished, the company will announce the formal outcomes if the margin of victory for one facet is larger than the variety of contested ballots.

If the margin is narrower, then it might take two to a few weeks for the N.L.R.B. to carry a listening to to kind via the contested ballots and take proof from either side on whether or not they need to be counted.