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Workers at four Amazon warehouses in Staten Island withdrew their demands for union votes, casting doubt on the imminent pressure to organize at an Amazon workplace that could lead to a second election in less than a year.

The group asked Friday to withdraw its election petition, and the National Labor Relations Board approved.

Christian Smalls, a former Amazon An employee leading the effort said he told the board’s group that he needed more signatures to show that enough workers were interested in making the choice. He said the group plans to reorganize after more workers sign up.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement that the company’s “focus continues to listen directly to our employees and continually evolve on their behalf.”

The pressure to unionize reflected the growing labor challenges Amazon and other major employers are facing as the pandemic. gave workers a stronger hand for the first time in decades. But the decline of Staten Island labor organizers shows how difficult it is to form a union at the nation’s largest companies, particularly Amazon. The company promotes an average start-up wage of $18 per hour and has aggressively backed down on past efforts through signage in buildings and mandatory meetings with workers.

Mr. Smalls’ efforts were not organized by an established association, but rather by a current and former group. Amazon workers aiming to establish an independent organization, Amazon Labor Union. The group spent six months collecting signatures from workers requesting a vote, and presented them to the working board last month.

NS board of directors appointed required threshold for signatures to represent at least 30 percent of the employees of the proposed bargaining unit. The decision laid the groundwork for an election next spring.

Typically, unions apply with far more signatures than the 30 percent threshold, as support has historically eroded throughout the campaign, according to labor experts. Amazon said it didn’t believe the threshold had been reached for weeks, saying more people were working in the buildings than the Amazon Labor Union had initially stated. Organizers applied to represent 5,500 workers, but Amazon said the facilities employed more than 9,600 in documents submitted to the labor board.

The Amazon Labor Union continued to recruit workers and this week hung a sign offering “Free Grass and Food from ALU” next to a tent it set up next to a bus stop next to warehouses. Mr Smalls said he had submitted 400 additional signatures to the work board after initially accepting the petition, but has since learned that the agency has determined it needs more.

He also noted that Amazon has submitted payroll data to the employment board, and the company believes that half of the people who signed cards for the union no longer work for the company. Ms. Nantel declined to comment.

The New York Times reported this year turnover in the company was about 150 percent per year even before the pandemic increased the attrition of the labor market.

The organization focused on a massive Staten Island warehouse known as JFK8, which serves as Amazon’s main pipeline to New York City. It employs more than 5,000 people. Over time, the organizers expanded their pressure to include three smaller Amazon sites in the same industrial park.

Workers at JFK8 accused Amazon of illegally interfering with their rights to organize. The agency said staff attorneys at the National Labor Relations Board have found some value in pursuing at least three more of their cases and are still investigating several others.

In April, Amazon defeated a union election at its warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., in the biggest union threat the company has faced in its history. The workers’ effort drew visits from Senator Bernie Sanders and tacit support from President Biden. some on Amazon anti-union measures mobilize a labor board official Suggesting that the results be annulled and the election rerun is a decision Amazon says it will appeal.

Amazon has almost 1.5 million employees and is looking to hire hundreds of thousands of seasonal and permanent hourly workers in the United States this fall. Brian Olsavsky, the company’s chief financial officer, said last month that the biggest constraint in their operations is not the supply chain or warehouse space, but the ability to hire and retain enough workers as it expands.

For example, he said Amazon sometimes ships packages over longer distances or by faster, more expensive methods if a warehouse close to a customer doesn’t have enough workers to process an order.

Amazon has increased wages and offered bonuses to attract workers in a tight labor market, and Mr Olsavsky told investors to expect labor problems to cost the company $4 billion in the holiday quarter alone.