GARNER, NC—On February 15th a vote to unionize the Amazon warehouse in Garner, North Carolina, known as RDU1, ended in a crushing defeat for the union effort. The effort was lead by a local group, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (C.A.U.S.E.) who worked for three years to organize the plant. The vote however showed that much work remains to be done, with 2,447 voting against an union while only 829 voted for C.A.U.S.E.
Amazon resorted to many different tactics to defeat this unionization effort and judging by the vote result, it unfortunately worked incredibly well. Amazon hosted daily meetings with workers and had TV screens with anti-union messages. Amazon fired Ryan Brown who was a leading figure in the effort appropriately for using “inappropriate language” while three C.AU.S.E. members were arrested while distributing food outside the RDU1 warehouse. C.AU.S.E. members also accused Amazon of removing workers from the lobby who were attempting to share updates online. This in addition to other efforts of Amazon to defeat this drive shows the importance for the workers to fight for better conditions.
North Carolina is, along with many of its Southern neighbors, an incredibly difficult state to organize in and this vote showed many examples of the tactics used by large corporations to defeat any organizing work. North Carolina is a “right to work” state which means that the job is always going to be incredibly difficult work to do, but that it is a job that must be done. North Carolina has a long history of fighting for better conditions and unions but has come up short many times before.
Garner is a suburb of Raleigh a city that is very unaffordable for many of its residents and the efforts of these and other workers to organize and demand better conditions and wages is not only important but necessary. We must join together to support our fellow workers and fight back against any anti-union efforts both here and worldwide.
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