LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - The GMB union has failed to

secure the right to formally represent workers at an Amazon ( AMZN )

warehouse in Coventry, central England, Amazon ( AMZN ) said on

Wednesday.

The ballot result on union recognition is a blow for the UK

trade union movement as victory in the ballot would have forced

the U.S. ecommerce giant to negotiate labour terms with a UK

union for the first time.

The Coventry workers have been involved in a dispute over

pay and union recognition for over a year, and have carried out

numerous strikes.

The GMB union has argued Amazon ( AMZN ) frustrated its recognition

bid by recruiting hundreds of additional workers at the site so

the union no longer had the numbers to make the ballot

threshold.

Amazon's ( AMZN ) treatment of workers has been in the spotlight for

years. It has historically opposed unionisation, saying its

preference has been to resolve issues with employees directly

rather than through unions.

However, in 2022, workers at its warehouse in Staten Island,

New York, forced the company to recognise a trade union in the

U.S. for the first time.

That was seen as key moment for the union movement. However,

Amazon ( AMZN ) workers at two other New York warehouses and one in

Alabama have since voted against unionising.

Amazon ( AMZN ) does interact with unions in countries such as

Germany and Italy. But that is largely because it is required to

by government.

Amazon ( AMZN ) employs about 75,000 in the UK, making it one of the

country's top ten private sector employers.

Britain's new Labour government has promised to give workers

more rights and unions more power.

It plans to update trade union legislation, removing

restrictions on trade union activity and ensuring industrial

relations are based around good faith negotiation and

bargaining.

Labour says British employment laws are outdated, a drag on

economic growth and a major factor in the UK's worst period of

industrial relations since the 1980s.