(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said the company’s effort to overturn a union victory at a New York warehouse would take a long time to play out, an indication that the e-commerce giant plans to contest the election vigorously.  

Jassy on Wednesday said that there were “a lot of disturbing irregularities” during the vote that saw the upstart Amazon Labor Union win the right to represent more than 8,000 of the company’s workers at a warehouse on Staten Island. Amazon last week lost its initial appeal of the vote, with a US labor board official finding the company failed to prove its allegations that the election was unfair. 

Union officials urged Amazon to accept the results of the vote and begin negotiations on an employment contract, but the company said it planned to appeal. Speaking at the Code Conference in Los Angeles, Jassy indicated that the company would likely take its case beyond the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that conducts union elections. 

Amazon has alleged misconduct by union officials, including trespassing on company property, disrupting operations and handing out marijuana in exchange for workers’ support. The company also alleged that the NLRB had given workers the impression that the government supported the union.  

“I think that’s going to take a long time to play out, because I think it’s unlikely the NLRB will find against themselves,” Jassy said. Amazon has until next week to file objections to the NLRB hearing officer’s report, which would be reviewed by another agency official. Amazon could also challenge the NLRB’s conduct in federal court, a widely anticipated outcome.   

Though Amazon faces union drives at a handful of facilities, Jassy noted there had been just a single successful vote in the US to date. “I think it hasn’t been a huge, broad union issue,” he said. 

Employees at the company’s warehouses have to choose between “the compelling set of benefits they have today with us,” or throw in with a union, which would mean paying union dues. “And it’s unclear what benefits they’ll get. Whether they’ll be as good as what they have now or not.” 

Jassy also reiterated Amazon’s opposition to an antitrust bill sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, saying it was broad, overreaching and vague, and would likely degrade the Amazon Prime membership program. 

He said he wasn’t sure whether Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who has long criticized Amazon’s market power, would seek to oppose the company’s pending $3.49 billion acquisition of primary-care company 1Life Healthcare Inc., operator of the One Medical line of doctor’s offices. “It’s a very, very large space, of which One Medical is a very, very small share,” Jassy said. 

He said Amazon remained committed to the health care market despite deciding to wind down its Amazon Care telehealth service. “If there was ever a customer experience that needs reinvention, particularly in the US, it’s health care,” he said. “That’s part of what we’re trying to solve with the One Medical acquisition.” 

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