Amazon employees at a warehouse facility in Staten Island, New York, voted Friday to form the first Amazon union in the United States by joining the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). A group of former and current warehouse employees established the ALU in April 2021, with former employee Christian Smalls as the president. A total of 4,785 votes were cast, and 2,654 votes voted to unionize while 2,131 voted against it.
The ALU’s demands include paid sick leave, pay raises, no overtime cap, reinstatement of 20-minute breaks, a shuttle service for workers, stopping activities aimed at disrupting or preventing the formation of unions, and allowing employees to have their phones on their person during working hours. Amazon had reportedly made many efforts to fight against unionizing, including displaying and messaging anti-union propaganda to its workers and mandatory staff meetings. Staff were told they could lose their current wages and benefits if they unionized. In February 2022, it called the New York Police Department to arrest Smalls and other union members, who were distributing food to workers on the warehouse premises, on charges of trespassing.
Amazon fired Smalls in March 2020, alleging that he had repeatedly violated its social distancing and quarantine rules which required him to stay off Amazon property. Smalls contended that he was fired for leading a protest outside the warehouse for increased health and safety protections for its workers. The Office of the New York Attorney General (OAG) called his termination “immoral and inhumane” and directed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to investigate the incident. In February 2021, Amazon sued the OAG for unlawfully subjecting it to state oversight over Smalls’ termination and Covid-19 response. In April 2021, a federal judge ruled in favor of the OAG.
Amazon has expressed its disappointment with the Staten Island election’s outcome. The company asserts that the NLRB’s decision to file a petition against it, right before the union election, seeking an injunction under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act and the reinstatement of a former employee, amounts to undue influence. It has also cited objections by the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation (NRF). The NRF has written to senators calling for an investigation into the suit filed by the NLRB.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the President was “glad to see workers ensure their voices are heard with respect to important workplace decisions.”
The Staten Island victory comes amid a spate of labor activism at Amazon and elsewhere in the US. On Thursday, a do-over union election in an Amazon facility at Bessemer, Alabama, seemed to be headed in favor of the company, but 400 remaining challenged ballots could change this course.
