07:35 AM EDT, 07/17/2024 (MT Newswires) -- British union GMB narrowly lost a vote to unionize at Amazon's ( AMZN ) Coventry warehouse after a ballot fell short of majority, media reports said.

The GMB union reportedly said 49.5% of the 2,600 workers voted for union recognition at the distribution site in England. It would have been the first time a union could bargain directly with Amazon ( AMZN ) in its Europe operations if the vote had succeeded.

In a post on X, the GMB union claimed that Amazon ( AMZN ) has been "pressuring workers into cancelling their GMB membership, bombarding them with anti-union seminars and threats to terms and conditions."

The union is now gearing up to take legal action against Amazon ( AMZN ) over "union-busting tactics" in response to the ballot's result, according to reports.

Amazon ( AMZN ) thanked those who voted in the ballot in an emailed statement to MT Newswires. "Across Amazon ( AMZN ), we place enormous value on engaging directly with our employees and having daily conversations with them. It's an essential part of our work culture," a spokesperson said.

Regarding GMB's allegations of membership cancellations, the Amazon ( AMZN ) spokesperson said that "employees were telling us they wanted to cancel their membership but could not find a way to do so, so we provided information to help."

The GMB union did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for comment.

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