Amazon workers in Moreno Valley have filed to join Amazon Labor Union, the independent union behind the first successful unionization at an Amazon warehouse earlier in the year.
Workers had made announcements their union drive last month, writing in a GoFundMe appeal earlier this year that workers at the facility are “overlooked, overworked and underpaid.” If successful, they will be the second or third Amazon warehouse to unionize. They are also theFirst Amazon workers in California to vote for a union.
The ONT8 bargaining unit is used to store inventory. would coverAccording to the National Labor Relations Board, there are approximately 800 workers. It’s unclear how many workers have signed union cards; at least 30 percent of eligible workers need to sign in order to qualify for a union election.
Chris Smalls, President of ALU celebrated the news Tuesday. “BIG NEWS,” he wroteFollow us on Twitter. “[C]ongratulations to the courageous worker leaders to put in that work daily on the ground.”
Union organizers claim that unionization will give workers more control over their work conditions and compensation. “We’re just trying to do right by our workers,” Nannette Plascencia, a leader in the union movement at ONT8, told the Los Angeles Times.
Smalls has likened the spread of ALU’s union movement to that of Starbucks workers, who have now unionized over 230 storesTheir union movement was launched in less than a year.
“Today, we’re bicoastal,” Smalls said when the California workers announced their union effort last month. “This is something that’s really going to continue to grow, just like Starbucks.”
Amazon workers are also part of a growing union movement in the U.S. Union filings grew By 53 percentAccording to data released by NLRB last Wednesday, Fiscal Year 2022 saw a significant increase in union filings compared to the previous year. This data confirms, as labor advocates have observed, the staggering growth of the union movement over the last year, which has seen union filings and wins from workers at nationally known companies like Apple, Trader Joe’s and Home Depot.
Amazon maintains that it prefers employees not to unionize. The company has spent millions of dollars on its anti-union efforts, firing Union organizersAnd calling the police onUnion organizers handing out literature to union members outside of company warehouses
Yes @AmazonMy Handle stands as it is. You forgot to mention the part that was created when my voice was heard against your Covid-19 response to 2020. This has nothing to do a Strike. Also, ALU is the workers and they will decide how to fight thanks🫡✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/nn53dwoeVw
— Christian Smalls (@Shut_downAmazon) October 11, 2022
The workers are required to file. Albany, New YorkThese are the beginning to voteIn Wednesday’s union election, they voted to join the ALU. The unit would encompass approximately 400 warehouse workers.
Albany workers had filed to unionize in August, citing low wages and safety concerns – the latter of which became an especially pronounced issue last week, when three Amazon warehouses, including the unionizing Albany warehouseThe unionized warehouse in Staten IslandThe fire was lit.
Staten Island workers staged an occupation after a trash compactor caught ablaze. They refused work until they could smell smoke in the warehouse. The company responded by suspending operations Numerous workersWho had taken part in the stoppage.
ALU denounced the company’s response to the work stoppage. “Amazon’s response to our genuine concerns has been despicable and full of lies,” the union wrote. “At this time, management is circulating that as many as 80 workers who were involved in the work stoppage were suspended. That is not, as their PR team claims, a ‘handful.’”
