Amazon Workers in Staten Island Aim for Union Voting


In a tent next to the Staten Island bus stop, four plastic tubs contain piles of cards with valuable signatures: the signatures of more than 1,700 hourly Amazon employees.

The cards read, “I, the undersigned, authorize Amazon Labor Union to represent me for collective bargaining.”

The Commitments are the result of six months of organization at Amazon’s only fulfillment center in New York City. Organizers expect to have hundreds more by Monday, when they plan to apply for a union election.

If the National Labor Relations Board approves his request, he could bring his second union vote in less than a year at an Amazon warehouse. In April, Amazon defeated a union election at its warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., the most serious union threat the company has faced in its history. The workers’ efforts gained national attention, including visits from Senator Bernie Sanders and a tacit greeting of support from President Biden.

Unlike the Alabama driver run by national retail workers unionThe Staten Island union is organized by former and current Amazon workers who aim to form a new independent union called the Amazon Labor Union. The drive is led by Christian Smalls, a former warehouse worker who became the face of worker unrest at the company last year.

Pressure to unionize reflects the growing labor challenges Amazon and other major employers face as the pandemic outperformed workers across the economic spectrum for the first time in decades. Workers who were released by the shock of the epidemic to their daily lives went on strike at John Deere and in plants Oreos and other Nabisco snacks together Kellogg cereals like Frosted Flakes, and almost walked off the sets in Hollywood. And workers at some Starbucks locations applied for union.

At Amazon, the issue is further complicated by its ambitions. It has 1.3 million employees and is looking to hire about 300,000 seasonal and permanent hourly workers in the United States this fall alone. Amazon has increased wages and announced that it is striving to become “the best employer in the world”. But the employment model — very high turnover executives fear current American workers are depleted – was under pressure even before the pandemic.

Yet the campaign in Staten Island faces many obstacles. The working board will need to determine whether enough valid signatures have been collected to give a great deal of interest in an election. Support can erode over time, as the Alabama vote shows. Amazon took a step back by promoting its $15 minimum wage and benefits, and workers rejected the union by a wide margin. some on Amazon anti-union measures mobilize a labor board official suggesting that the results be annulled and that elections be repeated, which Amazon says it will appeal.

Mr Smalls and others said they hoped their insider knowledge would give them an advantage. They were able to build support with their colleagues and were entitled to use spaces and communication tools only available to employees. Workers supporting the unionization campaign wore shirts and masks with the union logo in the building, put up publications in the break room and posted them on interior message boards.

“It’s hard to get a signed card from a worker,” said Mr Smalls. “It’s harder to talk when you’re a third party rather than someone working for the company.”

A company spokesperson, Kelly Nantel, said Amazon didn’t think unions were the best answer for their employees.

“Every day we empower people to find ways to improve their business, and when they do, we want to make those changes quickly,” he said. “This kind of continuous improvement is more difficult to do quickly and agile when unions are in the middle.”

He added that the company has made “major progress” in pay and safety in recent years.

The unionization effort follows a dramatic 18-month process at Amazon’s massive Staten Island warehouse known as JFK8, which serves as the main pipeline to New York.

Early in the outbreak, after Mr. Smalls held a protest about his safety conditions, Amazon fired him. The company said it violated the company’s quarantine order because he was exposed to a sick coworker by attending the event.

leaked meeting notes The black one was taken by the firm’s top lawyer, Mr. Smalls, “not smart or outspoken.” Amazon’s actions were publicly condemned, a lawsuit by the New York attorney general’s office accusing the company of retaliation, and accusations of racism that Amazon appealed. The lawyer later apologized and said he was unaware of Mr Smalls’ race at the time.

Derrick Palmer, Mr. Smalls’ best friend, continued to work at the 5,000-person facility, one of the largest in the country, even as the layoff made headlines, promising to replace him from within. A New York Times investigation This summer, he discovered that the warehouse exemplifies Amazon’s employment model: It attracted employees with solid pay and benefits, but burned workers, exposing them to bullying. problems like misfires and provided limited opportunity for advancement.

Even before the pandemic, Amazon’s workforce turnover was around 150 percent per year, nearly double that of the retail and logistics industries overall.

Just a month after the Alabama vote failed last spring, Mr. Smalls and Mr. Palmer began organizing JFK8. Amazon acted quickly, posting notifications and posting messages on TV screens in central areas and on signage on bathroom counters. “ALU has inexperienced leadership and zero experience in negotiation for workers”, read one break room sign.

Nantel said Amazon provides materials to educate workers about the realities of joining a union and the selection process itself.

Since mid-May, workers at JFK8 have filed nine lawsuits against the labor board accusing Amazon of illegally interfering with their right to organize, from confiscating pro-union leaflets they left in the break room to spying on where they congregate on a sidewalk. According to the agency, staff lawyers on the labor board found some justification in accusations of illegal interference in three cases and are still investigating the others.

Ms. Nantel declined to comment on the cases.

Mr Smalls said the unionization initiative was largely funded by $20,000 raised through a GoFundMe account, which was used to buy an SUV to carry his groceries, T-shirts and supplies. Organizers held barbecues outside the facility and set up a nearby fire pit to keep warm while hiring workers for the night shift.

“We are able to connect with the workers and really choose their brains on what they want us to implement,” said Mr Palmer. “It’s really personal because we’re still at Amazon – I’m still working.”

Last Thursday, Mr. Smalls, dressed head to toe in red, white, and black – what he said would be the colors of an Amazon union – waited at the bus stop for workers to arrive for their shifts.

Quron Olive, 23, arrived at the warehouse with her longboard before her 4:30 p.m. shift began. The epidemic began on Amazon after federal unemployment benefits expired in September. Although he did not see a career at Amazon, he decided to sign a union card.

“I would rather be part of people trying to make this a better experience for them than to think about myself,” said Mr Olive.

Jean Valeur, another worker at the warehouse, commutes two hours in each direction from the Bronx. He started working for Amazon in early October and had not previously signed the union’s election petition because he didn’t want to miss the bus.

This time he got off his shift and went out with a friend to wait for the bus. After seeing his friend sign the union’s petition, Mr. Valeur decided that the plant would benefit if workers organized.

“In these times,” he said, “we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Mr. Smalls and Mr. Palmer initially focused only on JFK8. But they plan to apply for selection at three other Amazon warehouses clustered in the same industrial park: a building where workers sort packages for delivery and two stations where drivers pick up and deliver boxes.

Wilma B. Liebman, head of the labor board under former President Barack Obama, said independent unions have a century-old history. Over time, they often join larger unions to lead a long and grueling struggle.

Established unions have more resources, both financially and in terms of experience, he said, but labor organizers “have a lot of advantages because they can work side-by-side with people and be able to chat.”

“It can be extremely successful and it can fail,” he added.





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