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A demonstrator during the vote count to unionize Amazon workers outside the National Labor Relations Board offices in New York, U.S., on Friday, April 1, 2022.

"They will add fuel to the flames if they continue to stonewall in negotiations as they have so vigorously resisted in the organizing phase." Adding a union to the mix changes that dynamic completely, because employees get bargaining power and a seat at the table.Amazon has the opportunity to embrace that reality, said Anastasia Christman, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project in New York."They have this choice they can make," Christman said. "They can either decide to continue to fight this in a very negative way or say that workers have identified problems in the workforce and let's hear them out." But in the last few years, the company has drawn the ire of politicians and regulators for alleged anti-competitive behavior, paying little in taxes and mistreating workers.This may be a time for the company to play nice and avoid a protracted battle, said Tom Kochan, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management."I would expect now that there is this first victory on the part of a union that Amazon is going to have to reassess its labor relations strategy and begin to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement," said Kochan, an expert on work and employment policies. If they're unhappy with the regional director's ruling, either side can escalate its complaint to the NLRB board in Washington. While the enforcement mechanisms facing Amazon may be limited, public pressure is growing and the labor movement is gaining support.Starbucks baristas in several locations have voted to unionize, and in late March Google Fiber contractors in Kansas City, Missouri, supported a union effort, becoming the first workers with bargaining rights under the Alphabet Workers Union.Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted his congratulations on Friday after the Amazon vote and said "it's going to be a shot in the arm for this country's labor movement." Amazon will delay," said David Rosenfeld, a labor lawyer at Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld, and a lecturer at the University California at Berkeley School of Law. "They’re not going to walk in and do the right thing because that will encourage organizing everywhere else. Workers in Bessemer, Alabama, just wrapped up a second vote on whether to unionize, and while the effort appears to have failed again, the count was significantly closer than the first contest last year.Amazon has no interest in seeing the movement gain further momentum. As of Friday, the tally at the Staten Island warehouse, known as JFK8, was 2,654 votes in favor of joining the union and 2,131 opposed, with 67 ballots being challenged.The fulfillment center doesn't flip to becoming a union shop overnight, and there's potentially a long road ahead. If the goal is delay, Amazon has unlimited resources to hire the top lawyers and consultants. They'll do everything they can to avoid a contract, and it will be a big, long, nasty fight." Amazon workers on New York's Staten Island just made history, becoming the first group to vote in favor of unionizing at a U. S. facility operated by the country's largest e-commerce company.After a hard-fought battle, the result is a major defeat for Amazon, which has used all of its might to keep organized labor off its premises.