Amazon spent $4.3 million last year on anti-union consultants. The formation of the Amazon Labor Union, on Staten Island, is potentially one of the biggest labor victories since the 1930s.
The day after a group of Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island voted to form a union—potentially one of the biggest labor victories since the nineteen-thirties—their gargantuan gray warehouse, stamped with the company’s yellow arrow swoosh, looked as unremarkable as ever. A nearby creek sparkled in the sun. Prime container trucks growled along Gulf Avenue. The only thing out of the ordinary was in the warehouse parking lot.
After the first coronavirus cases emerged in JFK8, Smalls and three of his co-workers, Derrick Palmer, Jordan Flowers, and Gerald Bryson—all Black men—had organized protests to demand safety improvements. Smalls and Bryson were fired , Palmer received a final warning but continued to work, and Flowers, who has lupus, sought long-term medical leave. The four friends started the Congress of Essential Workers to coördinate further actions.
All afternoon, I had similar conversations with pickers and re-binners, sorters, water spiders, and packers. Yes voters resented how they’d been treated by Amazon, and felt annoyed by Amazon’s anti-union propaganda. Some had family members—home health aides, construction workers—who said that unions were good. Voters who chose no, on the other hand, were suspicious of the A.L.U. or didn’t want to pay dues. They thought that Amazon was a very good place to work, and feared losing their jobs.
Yet the Amazon Labor Union showed that being an independent union doesn’t necessarily mean working in isolation. It borrowed office space, supplies, and strategy from traditional unions, and welcomed “salts”—people who got jobs in the warehouses for the express purpose of organizing. Community supporters donated thousands of dollars to the A.L.U. and to individual worker-leaders who were fired by Amazon.
It’s also frowned upon for a union to make one or two workers the face of a campaign. But Smalls, often dressed in an A.L.U. shirt and sunglasses, was the subject of multiple media profiles. In April of 2020, an internal memo was leaked that showed Amazon’s in-house lawyer, David Zapolsky, recommending that the corporation make Smalls “the face of the entire union” because he was “not smart, or articulate.” The memo, which a reporter from Vice obtained and published, became a provocation.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Amazon Workers Win Battle To Form First U.S. UnionAmazon workers at a Staten Island, NY processing facility have won a historic vote to form the first-ever collective bargaining unit at the e-commerce giant, despite months of an aggressive anti-union campaign run by the company. What do you think?
Read more »
The Amazon Union Is Part of a Legacy of Black Labor OrganizingChris Smalls was fired by Amazon. Then he helped form its first union. OpEd
Read more »
Perspective | The dangerous unselfishness of the Amazon labor union leadersHow two community college dropouts reignited the labor union movement in America
Read more »
'Say It With Pride': Pushback After Psaki Walks Back Biden Amazon Union Remarks'President Biden is right. Let's get every Amazon worker in a union.' BernieSanders
Read more »