Amazon has always been aggressive in trying to prevent employees from organizing unions. This is because the management thinks that workers are powerless. That’s why the first Amazon union will be a big deal. But it isn’t easy to imagine how it could have been better than this one was.
More than 8,000 employees in an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island had voted to unionize with the independent Amazon Labor Union. America’s most powerful non-union company has been defeated, not by an influential individual or group. In contrast, it was initiated by a former employee. This employee has no real experience or budget and started organizing because he noticed something that needed to be done.
First Amazon Union Has the Last Laugh
Before we move to the analytical significance of this historic success of the American working class, here’s what they want to say to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: Ha. Hahahaha. Oh, by the way, the mega-billionaire recently returned to Earth from a short trip to space in his luxury rocket.
The previous generation of low-wage American jobs was created by Walmart, a place where unions never had the opportunity to organize. That failure by the labor movement resulted in millions of workers trapped for decades in retail jobs that do not pay enough to survive. While the Walton family, owners of Walmart, became some of the wealthiest people in the world.
Amazon is now transforming the American workplace just like Walmart did in the past. And it would result in a more dramatic erosion of the idea that hard work should provide a decent wage.
Chris Smalls’ Role in First Amazon Union
Fortunately, we can now say that Amazon is no longer a union-free company. Much of the credit for the first Amazon union goes to Chris Smalls. Smalls was a former Amazon worker who the company fired after leading a walkout over safety concerns. Today, Smalls, the dozens of volunteers, and thousands of employees at the warehouse have accomplished what highly paid consultants assured Amazon was impossible.
The Amazon Labor Union was a grassroots, worker-led effort not affiliated with any existing union. Meanwhile, in Bessemer, Alabama, the Retail Workers union has spent two years and millions of dollars working to organize an Amazon warehouse there. They also asked for the assistance of countless professional union organizers. The vote at that warehouse was counted simultaneously as Staten Island’s, and the result is not yet available due to hundreds of challenged ballots.
Different approaches have varied results indeed. But the lesson from these campaigns is: Try everything. Should big, existing unions help organize Amazon workers? Yes. Should small, persistent bands of Amazon workers launch organizing events themselves? Yes. All of those people are part of the American labor movement that has only begun what will be a decades-long struggle to shape Amazon into a place where a warehouse job can sustain a decent middle-class lifestyle.
Hamilton Nolan
In 2015, Hamilton Nolan of The Guardian shared that he was part of a small successful union drive at a digital media company. He said that a union listened to them and helped them as they tried to organize. When people understood what a union could do, they said yes and supported the campaigns. Nolan noted that unionizing the warehouses, the Uber drivers, the fast-food restaurants, and other workplaces should not stop. Never. There’s a need to organize everyone. He emphasized that if the Amazon workers can do it, other workers can do it.
