ANALYSIS: Amazon Votes Reveal Unions’ Secret Helper—Low Turnout

In last month’s historic vote for union representation at an Amazon facility in New York City, only 58% of all eligible workers actually cast a ballot. Voter turnout at a second Amazon location in the city was higher—61% of all eligible voters—but the result, announced yesterday by the National Labor Relations Board, was a union loss.

These election results shed light on a paradoxical hidden paradigm in 21st-century organizing: The lower the turnout, the better the results—for labor, not for management.

The trend has been as definitive as it is perplexing. In 2000, voter turnout was an impressive 85%. But ...