Amazon workers in Alabama vote against forming company’s first union

• Workers at Bessemer warehouse reject joining RWDSU
• Legal challenge looks inevitable due to many contested ballots

Amazon has won a victory in its hard-fought campaign to stop workers at an Alabama warehouse forming the company's first union, in a tough blow for the US labor movement.

Workers at the Bessemer, Alabama, plant have voted 1,798 to 738 to reject the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Counting concluded on Friday morning, and attention will now focus on some 505 challenged ballots , but the margin of victory was too greatto change the outcome.