The union victory at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse – a new way to organize?

On April 1, Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island voted to unionize – 2,654 to 2,131 – in a historic National Labor Relations Board “NLRB” election. This was the first union victory in Amazon’s 27-year history. This was not like the union defeat at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama facility last year, which included major outside union and political support. In this case, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) was independent and led by workers from inside the warehouse. Since the 1990’s, many well established unions – including the Teamsters, CWA, and the UFCW, have tried and failed to organize at Amazon – the nation’s second largest employer after Walmart.

How did the Union Win?

Workers at Staten Island succeeded in winning a union election, even though many other established unions tried and failed. It appears this was because the union was independent and led by workers from inside the warehouse instead of by a large outside union. The organizers of the ALU were Amazon’s current and former workers, who were able to connect with the employees. By contrast, in Bessemer, Alabama, the organizers were professional paid union organizers from the out-of-town Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union which failed to connect with the workers.

The Union organizing drive started when Amazon employees were concerned about COVID in the warehouse. One employee, Chris Smalls, was frustrated by H.R.’s lack of response to workers’ demands, so he organized an employee walkout. As a result, he was terminated and became the face of the Union. He set up shop at a public bus stop adjacent to the warehouse and spoke to workers one-on-one as they came to and from work, even sleeping at the bus stop at night.

According to Bob Schoonover, President of the Los Angeles based SEIU Local 721, the union victory at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse “is great.” He thought that the reason the union was successful was because “workers are in a situation now where inflation is out of the bottle, and because of the Covid-19 pandemic, workers are asking themselves: “Why don’t I have a voice in my worksite?”” Schoonover said: “I can’t organize workers who don’t want to be organized. At Amazon, Chris Smalls was highly motivated because he was fired.”

Other labor leaders praised the union victory. “It’s sending a wake-up call to the rest of the labor movement,” said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. According to Sean O’Brien, the Teamsters president: “We have to be homegrown – we have to be driven by workers – to give ourselves the best chance. The Teamsters are excited to continue this fight against Amazon – on the shop floor, at the bargaining table, and on the streets.”

The Teamsters represents about 1.3 million members, including UPS workers who voted last year in favor of making Amazon a key priority and helping its workers achieve a union contract. Likewise, Liz Shuler, president of AFL-CIO, recently said the organization would help the Teamsters take on Amazon, and praised the Staten Island result. “In the face of one of the richest, most anti-union corporations, today’s victory proves when working people unite in the fight for justice, anything is possible,” Shuler tweeted.

Management side attorney John Golper, of counsel to Ballard, Rosenberg, Golper and Savitt, stated: “Employers need to wake-up. It is a tight labor market, workers are concerned about COVID and inflation, so employers have to be attentive to the needs of their workers. There is a whole new mentality among employees, not only in warehouses, but across all industries. Therefore, employers need to strengthen their human resources skills before they become a target of a union organizing drive.

Amazon is Fighting Back

On the other hand, Amazon is strongly resisting the unionization efforts. It is seeking to overturn the historic union victory, arguing in a legal filing last Friday that union organizers and the National Labor Relation Board acted in a way that tainted the results. It now wants to redo the election. Amazon filed 25 objections, including one that claims union organizers distributed marijuana to workers to induce them to vote for the union.

Another objection claimed that a NLRB lawsuit filed in March against Amazon in which the NLRB sought to force Amazon to reinstate a fired employee and who was involved in the union drive “failed to protect the integrity and neutrality of its procedures,” and had created an impression of support for the union by seeking reinstatement of the former employee, Gerald Bryson. According to Amazon, “Based on the evidence we’ve seen so far, as set out in our objections, we believe that the actions of the NLRB and the ALU improperly suppressed and influenced the vote, and we think the election should be conducted again so that a fair and broadly representative vote can be had,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement Friday.

Even after the NLRB eventually certifies the results of the election as is expected, the ALU must still negotiate a contract with Amazon. This will not be an easy task because Amazon will probably strenuously resist. But one thing is for certain – the ALU election victory will definitely change the way in which unions think about organizing.