If the vote is successful, the department store would become Amazon’s first unionized facility in the country, dealing a serious blow to the online retail giant’s efforts to keep organized workers out. It would also mean an independent union could thrive where many more established unions have faltered, which is said to be possible because it’s run by Amazon insiders.
But despite its momentum and early success in attracting potential votes from two camps, ALU faces a difficult challenge when it comes to acquiring the second-largest private employer in the United States, a company that has seemingly endless resources to fight union organisation. And there’s a big question mark over how many employees will end up supporting the effort.
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To get to the vote, the ALU only collected signatures from about 30 percent of Amazon workers, who in many cases must meet required threshold campaigns. But union organizers typically try to secure about 70 percent or more, based on the assumption they are likely to lose votes due to turnover and union busting.
Regardless of the outcome, holding the vote is a remarkable achievement by an independent union organized and led by current and former Amazon workers, with no official endorsement from national unions. Labor experts say his early successes show that workers in many parts of the country are reassessing their relationships with their employers and are more willing to speak up publicly for their rights.
“We’re at a different moment since the pandemic began than we were two years ago,” said John Logan, chair of the Department of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University. “I’m not sure big anti-union companies like Amazon and Starbucks really understand what has changed in the last two years.”
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Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said employees always have a choice about whether to join a union. “As a company, we don’t believe that unions are the best solution for our employees,” she added. “Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
Smalls said he feels confident about the upcoming vote. “I just think our campaign is really, really different than anything you’ve ever seen,” he said.
Amazon, which operates hundreds of warehouses across the country where products are packaged and sorted, has never been unionized in the United States, despite the efforts of Teamsters, AFL-CIO union members and others. Amazon is known for a regimented work environment in its warehouses, which has been repeatedly criticized for being unsafe and over-monitoring employees at work.
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Amazon, too, has faced severe setbacks in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, with workers voicing concerns about the spread of the disease in facilities as they have faced tremendous pressure from surges in orders from consumers stuck at home. Both major union efforts now underway at Amazon plants emerged from this time of crisis, and workers said safety concerns were a major factor.
Amazon has denied this, saying in the past it was taking precautions against the spread of the coronavirus. Eventually, it introduced tighter safety measures and set up its own coronavirus testing lab to screen workers.
The other major union standoff is in Bessemer, Alabama, where workers last year voted more than 2 to 1 against unionization. After the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) discarded those votes, saying Amazon unduly interfered in the election, they are now holding a re-election on whether to join the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union.
Voting began in early February and will end next week. That, too, could be a tough fight to win, in part because of regional politics, opposition from Amazon, and because some workers value the work that pays more than many in the region.
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While Bessemer’s election is being driven by the union and has garnered support from across the country, Staten Island is run by a burgeoning organization founded by a laid-off Amazon worker.
Smalls, who previously worked at the warehouse he is trying to organize, was fired in March 2020 after publicly complaining about Amazon’s coronavirus safety procedures. At the time, he said he was fired in retaliation for his comments. The company said it fired him after he ignored a request from his manager to stay home because of his contact with a worker who tested positive for the coronavirus.
The ALU is not entirely without traditional labor support, as volunteers from other local unions have lent a hand. Labor lawyer Seth Goldstein, who represented two workers who were fired during a union campaign at Brooklyn tech company Kickstarter, provided free legal advice to organizers about potentially unfair labor practices.
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Goldstein brushes off the idea that partnering with a national union would have given ALU more resources to draw from if it were to take on the online retail giant. “It’s not about money. Amazon has all the money in the world,” he said. “The advantage is that workers organize workers.”
Smalls started the ALU with current staff at the facility and funds it primarily through a GoFundMe crowdfunding account. He has dismissed the need for support from an established national union, saying that remaining independent and worker-led gives the ALU a unique advantage. “This is beneficial for employees because they don’t need a third party to come in and learn the ins and outs of Amazon, these are real Amazon employees,” he said.
Amazon has taken advantage of ALU’s young age, writing on a website asking workers to vote that ALU “has no experience representing any employees anywhere”. Smalls said he doesn’t believe his union’s independence will undermine other organizing efforts in the country, and he sees that as the best opportunity for success on Staten Island. “If they’re successful, that’s a win for us, too,” he said of the Alabama campaign.
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Still, the ALU has been criticized by union observers for, for example, not sticking to the established labor book and choosing to submit a vote so early with just 30 percent of the signatures of eligible workers.
In that case, Smalls said, it’s almost impossible to get more. Due to high turnover at Amazon’s warehouses, estimated at around 100 percent for most, the union was unable to get workers to sign cards fast enough before the workforce changed. Instead, they submitted about 30 percent of the signatures to determine the group that would be eligible to vote.
Staten Island workers are demanding, among other things, a $30 hourly wage from their starting rate of about $18, paid time off for injured workers, more overtime and longer breaks.
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“We want to make it a good middle-class job that you can stay in long-term,” said Connor Spence, an employee at Staten Island’s fulfillment center and ALU organizer.
The warehouse is holding an in-person vote for thousands of workers starting Friday, which will run until March 30. Results from both Staten Island and Bessemer are expected to be announced in early April. A second, smaller warehouse on Staten Island will hold a vote in late April.
The company has fought tooth and nail against the formation of unions at its facilities, holding mandatory classes for workers, creating websites and posters, and telling workers in New York that a union would not necessarily improve their welfare benefits. Experts say if a warehouse successfully forms a union, it could lead to a cascading effect of organizing at facilities across the country, something Amazon doesn’t want to risk.
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The election was already controversial even before voting began. ALU has filed numerous complaints against Amazon with the NLRB for unfair labor practices.
The NLRB also sued Amazon in federal court last week, trying to get Amazon to reinstate a laid-off worker and post about workers’ rights at the facility before the vote begins. The case centers on a worker who was fired in 2020 after protesting safety concerns over the coronavirus. Amazon said he “bullied” a colleague, but his lawyers said he was fired in retaliation for his protest.
Nantel said it was “remarkable that the NLRB would seek an ’emergency order’ just before an election, despite having known the facts in this case for over 18 months.”
In December, Amazon reached a settlement with the regulator and agreed to make it easier for workers to organize in its warehouses. This included a provision giving workers who have finished their shifts but are involved in union activities access to non-working areas of the facility, such as
Also from an insider’s point of view, it will be a tough fight for the ALU to win the election, say labor experts. In the United States, it’s difficult for any new union to form, especially when a giant company like Amazon is working against it.
“Forming a union is an enormously long, complicated and expensive process,” said Erik Loomis, associate professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. “I find it highly unlikely that an independent union will handle these challenges any better than an established union.”