Bessemer, Alabama – It's a big week for Amazon workers seeking to unionize in Alabama and New York!

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will begin sending ballots this Friday to Amazon workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.

The workers will be voting whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and become the first unionized Amazon facility in the US.

The election is a redo after the first attempt failed. The NLRB found Amazon had engaged in unfair labor practices, potentially impacting the results of the first vote and prompting a second election.

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The company had been accused of holding mandatory anti-union meetings, telling employees union leaders would use dues to buy themselves luxury cars and vacations, and intimidating workers by placing the mailbox for depositing ballots under an Amazon tent in the warehouse's parking lot. One pro-union worker said he even saw corporate security officers opening the box.

Organizers say a lot has changed since the first election. "The reason why I think it's going to be different this time around is just by the sheer fact that a lot of us are showing that we are committed to forming our union," Isaiah Thomas, a local worker, said in a More Perfect Union video.

"A lot of us are showing that regardless of the things that they throw our way, whether it be the turnover rate or whether it be the mandatory anti-union meetings or whether it be surveillance, we're gonna stick together."

Kristina Bell, another local organizer, said many of the workers didn't vote the first time around and didn't know the significance of the union vote.

That's changed, in her view: "I'm excited. I just know that something greater is coming."

Meanwhile, in New York, Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizers announced on Wednesday that they had filed a petition with the NLRB for a union election at a second location, LDJ5 in Staten Island.

ALU previously filed a petition for the nearby JFK8 facility. They initially submitted the petition in October but were forced to refile in December after the NLRB ruled they didn't have enough signatures to go to a vote.

Amazon has said the most recent filing still does not have enough signatures, but the NLRB decided there are enough to hold an election.

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A hearing for the JFK8 facility is scheduled for February 16.

Alabama and New York may be only the beginning of the Amazon unionization push. Christian Smalls, a former Amazon employee and one of the lead organizers in New York, tweeted that he has been in communication with 18 Amazon facilities in 12 states about possible unionization.

"Just know this is literally the beginning for @amazonlabor," Smalls wrote on Twitter.