In the week after Amazon workers’ historic union victory at a Staten Island, New York warehouse, workers at over 100 Amazon facilities contacted the union about organizing their own workplaces, according to the union’s president.
Christian Smalls explained that the union win has prompted a flood workers to contact Amazon Labor Union (ALU). They are interested in unionizing. Yahoo Finance on Friday; approximately three days Before the interviewSmalls posted on Twitter four days after ALU won their election that workers at 50 facilities had already reached the unionizing process.
If Smalls’s count is accurate, that means that workers at 10 percent of the company’s roughly 1,000Unionizing is an option for fulfillment and packing centers. Amazon employs around a million workers, primarily in warehouse and delivery jobs, meaning that these union efforts could cover over a hundred thousand workers — a remarkable scope.
Smalls stated that he will hold a national conference call with Amazon employees within a few weeks. He will also be traveling to facilities to help workers organize.
With a 55% vote in favor of unionization, ALU won the right for ALU to represent over 8,000 workers at JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island. ALU is currently organizing a second warehouse in New York City called LDJ5, where approximately 1,500 people are employed.
The odds of the newly formed independent union winning at JFK8 were very slim. ALU’s campaign of bringing food to workersFundraising for workers in crisis and connecting one-to-one with them was a way to win over the odds. multimillion dollarThe company waged a months-long union-busting campaign.
And still, to Amazon, JFK8’s election isn’t over. In a recently revealed filingThe company claimed that the election was biased in favor of the union. They also claimed that the union violated legal boundaries when union workers chimed in during mandatory anti-union meetings, and when workers gave marijuana to anyone who asked. New York legalizes recreational marijuana.
“These objections have no merit, and exist merely as a tactic to stall the certification of our union, suppress a democratic outcome, damage morale, and shake workers’ faith in the NLRB process,” ALU said in a statement. “In these many objections, Amazon makes claims that are either misleading, trivial, or downright false. These claims will be investigated and dismissed, but not before weeks or months of NLRB time and resources are wasted.”
It’s unlikely that Amazon will succeed in getting the election invalidated, as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rarely overturns elections with allegations of wrongdoing on behalf of the union, experts say.
Workers showing that they are able to organize against the $1.5 trillion companyALU has the potential to expand rapidly in the future, with the movement spreading throughout the country. Derrick Palmer, ALU Vice President, was elected last week. met with Teamsters President Sean O’BrienWe will discuss how the powerful labor organization can help ALU reach new heights. Smalls says that the union is planning to provide “informal resources.”
If the union movement catches on within Amazon, it could be a huge boon for the U.S. labor movement at large — which, despite recent successes, has been waningSome labor advocates believe that this is true both in terms of numbers and strategically. Recent union victories like those at Amazon or Starbucks were largely led by labor advocates. by youngAnd college-agedWorkers; labor organizers claim that this could give life to the movement and open up new avenues for grassroots organizing.
The current Union membership is around 10% has been declining for decades. According to NLRB data, petitions for union election have increased by 57 per cent in the past six months. The data corroborates labor advocates’ recent observations that the movement has come back in a major way.
