With 2654 to 2131 votes, the workforce at the Amazon warehouse “JFK8” in Staten Island, New York, made it and defeated the global corporation for the time being: for the first time, an employee representative body takes care of the interests of the employees.
With over a million employees, the shipping giant Amazon is the second largest employer in the United States after Walmart. This pays off for high managers and especially its founder Jeff Bezos: With an estimated fortune of 189 billion US dollars, he is the second richest person on the planet. However, this prosperity does not rub off on the majority of his employees, especially those in the logistics centers: Low wages, long working hours and extremely short breaks dominate everyday life in the huge halls. For years, Amazon waged a bitter fight against the establishment of employee representatives that wanted to work for better conditions – until the historic election on April 1st, in which employees voted for employee representation for the first time.
In Staten Island, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) managed to convince the employees of an Amazon location and won a corresponding vote. In the future, negotiations about working conditions and wages will be conducted collectively in the “JFK8” logistics center via ALU and will no longer be a matter between individuals and management, as the group actually prefers.
Amazon is “disappointed”
Amazon published only a very short statement about the historic vote. In the company blog, the group writes: “We are disappointed with the outcome of the election in Staten Island because we believe that a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees.” The result does not seem to want to be accepted there. It continued: “We are evaluating our options, including filing appeals, alleging the National Labor Relations Board’s improper and improper interference that we and others (including the National Retail Federation and the US Chamber of Commerce) are observing in this election to have.”
Amazon’s aggressive attitude towards works councils, employee representatives and unions is not new. In the USA in particular, the company counters even the smallest efforts to unite the workforce with appropriate countermeasures and invests millions in this fight. Most recently, the US union “RWDSU” failed with a vote in Bessemer, Alabama by 875 to 993 votes. However, the final result is not fixed, because according to the union, 416 votes are still up for discussion, the evaluation of which could decide the election. The case is now before the court.
Clear result for Staten Island
Luckily for ALU founders Chris Smalls and Derrick Palmer, the vote in Staten Island was clearer. Of the approximately 4,800 votes, only 67 were up for discussion – not enough to contest the result. In order to win the votes of the employees, Palmer provided his colleagues at “JFK8” with information for months. Meanwhile, Chris Smalls set up shop at a bus stop near the store, educating people about his employee representation and what they could do, and at times entertaining visitors with food and parties.
Smalls is no stranger to Amazon and was a thorn in the side of the group even before the Amazon Labor Union was founded. In 2015 he started as a so-called picker, i.e. goods collector, in a warehouse in Connecticut, where he was initially fired and then rehired after an appeal. In 2018, he was transferred to JFK8 in Staten Island, where he worked as an operations assistant and said he had unsuccessfully applied for managerial positions 49 times.
Termination after protest march
The dispute with his employer escalated when he protested in 2020 against the assignment of a colleague who had come to work with clear Covid 19 symptoms and was waiting for his test result while at work. After the HR department said it ignored his complaints, Smalls organized a walkout to protest what he felt were far too lax corona protection measures at his location.
Smalls was fired that same day, despite railings from a New York City attorney, the city mayor and Senator Bernie Sanders. Despite repeated calls for reinstatement, it appears that Smalls was not retained. This may also have been due to the fact that even the highest management in the company defamed him.
In a memo from General Counsel David Zapolsky to then-CEO Jeff Bezos, Smalls was described as “not smart or articulate.” The idea of making him the face of the movement for the formation of employee representatives actually came from Amazon – because they didn’t fear him, they wanted to ridicule him and his efforts. American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez later described the memo as a “racist and class public relations campaign”.
Collective bargaining from May, signal effect possible
If the American labor law authority NLRB certifies the vote, Chris Smalls will have ample opportunity to take revenge in the future. ALU wants to enter into collective bargaining negotiations with Amazon as early as May. On behalf of the employees, they then want to demand better working conditions and higher wages. He already has other goals in mind for his ALU. Next, he wants to target the neighboring warehouse “LDJ5” and motivate the workforce there to vote as well.
The vote isn’t just a win for a single warehouse, experts say. Calls for employee representatives and unions are also getting louder at other companies, such as Starbucks. The charisma of the ALU is currently not yet foreseeable, but it certainly has the potential to turn the American working world upside down – because the frustration among employees in the land of unlimited opportunities is great.
Just on the topic-related discussion forums on Reddit,”anti work” and “labor reform“, 2.3 million frustrated, mostly American employees, who were of course also very happy about the victory of the ALU in Staten Island, cavort and give each other tips on how to effectively unite as a workforce.
Swell: Amazon, RWDSU, ALU, Twitter [1], Twitter [2], NPR