Dhaka, April 10 -- Amazon.com Inc's fierce resistance to unionisation, skepticism among workers that organising could get them a better deal and decisions on election parameters all contributed to the apparently lopsided defeat of a labour drive at the company's warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, people close to the events said.

A vote by workers on whether to unionise failed on Friday by a more than 2-to-1 margin in a major win for the world's largest online retailer. The union plans to challenge the results based on Amazon's conduct during the election.

Union leaders had hoped the campaign just outside Birmingham would create Amazon's first organised workplace in the country and spark a new era of worker activism. Instead, it has illustr...