Two years ago Amazon.com Inc’s general counsel suggested focusing public attention on fired employee and labour activist Christian Smalls because he “wasn’t smart or articulate”.
On Friday, Smalls led the fledgling union he founded to victory at one of Amazon’s New York warehouses — a seismic event that could upend the relationship between Amazon and its workers as well as help revitalize the struggling U.S. labour movement.
To be clear, Smalls’ Amazon Labor Union won an election at just one warehouse, a result the company signalled it will fiercely contest. Negotiating a contract, assuming Smalls even gets that far, won’t be easy. Still, he’s just getting started. Unions have often been wary about pursuing labour board elections against powerful corporations, leery of business-friendly US labour laws that let companies hold mandatory meetings to try and persuade workers that a union could leave them worse off. Even if employers fire organizers, they typically suffer minor penalties.
Smalls was even arrested at one point and charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration. Amazon said it called the police after warning Smalls multiple times that he wasn’t allowed on the property — a decision some labour experts predicted would backfire on the company.
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