In recent years union organizing at Amazon has increased significantly, Beginning with the defeated RWDSU campaign in Bessemer, Alabama in 2021 unions have been organized at multiple facilities, the most successful of which was the JFK8 drive that culminated in the 2022 victory by the independent Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island. Though the union, which has since been affiliated with the IBT, successfully overcame a vicious, anti-union campaign and won an NLRB-sponsored election, the union has not successfully brought the company to the negotiating table. With unions organized in eight facilities in four states, the December strike was an attempt to put pressure on the company to begin negotiations.

While the strike involved less than one percent of Amazon’s US workforce it nonetheless brought significant attention to the working conditions of Amazon warehouse workers and Delivery Service Partners (DSP) in facilities across the country. Local unions affiliated with the IBT set up picket lines comprised of union activists, shop stewards, and union officers with negligible participation from inside Amazon employees, aside from the 8 facilities with formal union memberships. Even the notable JFK8 warehouse had only 201 workers participate in the strike.

The strike nevertheless mobilized a significant segment of IBT members at bargaining units such as UPS, who have a direct interest in organizing Amazon. The greatest success of this nationwide action will most certainly be the cultivation of new contacts in facilities previously unavailable to the union, with interactions between union members and inside Amazon employees the prospects of future organizing drives are greatly improved.

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Amazon Labor Union (ALU) was started back in 2021 amidst a deepening fight at Amazon for workers’ right to unionize. The epicenter of that organizing started at Amazon warehouse JFK8, where ALU would begin with Chris Smalls as President, Derrick Palmer as Vice President (VP), and Michelle Valentin Nieves as Recording Secretary. Fast forward to 2024 and Smalls is not running for re-election, Palmer resigned following an assault charge last year, and Nieves has been acting VP for over a year. Now, Michelle is running for President of ALU and has outlined a plan to embolden workers and strengthen the rank-and-file members.

“Join us in our mission to empower Amazon workers. I, along with my team of experienced Amazon veterans, am committed to serving the rank-and-file membership of the ALU. We are strong advocates for on-site job retainment, Union representation, and upholding the FMLA and WWPA acts. Our vision is to return the Union back into the collective power of the rank-and-file membership, ensuring every worker has a seat at the table.”

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• Michelle documents an uphill battle for herself ever since she became a member of national leadership at ALU. Between the hostilities she’s experienced from other Executive Board members to Amazon management refusing to give workers Weingarten rights, the fight for the rank-and-file ALU members has not been easy. Nieves says that most of the rank and file don’t know Chris Smalls because he doesn’t spend time out on the shop floor and has spent more time traveling around speaking at panels than working to build the union. Meanwhile, Michelle has a relationship with the rank and file and is working every day to better understand the needs of the members. As President, she’s advocating for an expansion of the Executive Board to two members from each department, every member of ALU will be eligible to become a shop steward, and a bottom to top approach involving more of the rank and file.

Michelle and her slate is not running uncontested however as the “Democratic Reform Caucus” is also running a slate against Nieves. The DRC is headed by founding treasurer of ALU Connor Spence who resigned, left the union and then proceeded to sue ALU leadership on the basis of forcing elections (more on the subject can be read about here). LUEL continues to support ALU and the workers of JFK8 to build a fighting union on the basis of class-oriented trade unionism.

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Workers at Amazon’s KCVG Airhub have been pressured by the bosses against unionization. Jordan Quinn, an employee for the air hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, says that it’s nonsensical how a multinational corporation, such as Amazon, treats its employees.

“When people experience how hard we have to work, and how we don’t get paid enough, how we don’t get enough time off, and how we don’t get enough benefits, then Amazon will try and find a way to fire people for any reason,” Quinn said.

The unionization drive kicked off in May and Quinn joined the efforts. The group is calling for a $30 an hour starting wage (currently $21 an hour), 180 hours of paid time off, representation at disciplinary meetings, safer working conditions, and better translation services for those that speak English as their second language, as explained by the union organizer, Marcio Rodriguez.

“They refuse to give them training in their language, translation for HR in their language, or any type of translation with HR disciplinary matters,” Rodriguez said. “We need to communicate in this job. It’s very dangerous. We’re dealing with airplanes. We’re loading these cans that weigh thousands of pounds, where if you mis-communicate one thing, you could get crushed by it, get hurt or even killed. There’s no reason. Somebody’s going to get hurt. These people aren’t getting trained properly, and they’re going to hurt their coworkers, or they’re going to hurt themselves. And nobody comes to work to get hurt.”

In order to file for union elections, they need a minimum 30% of the workforce to sign union cards. Quinn said that over 1,000 employees have signed up.

Quinn said: “We know about co-workers getting intimidated by management, both at the union tables and on the floor. They’ve just been freaking out, to be honest. And I think we have them scared. Because they know we have momentum on our side.”

Management has ramped up its retaliation in recent months, up to and including having their jobs threatened for setting up union tables.

“It’s just ridiculous, blatant intimidation,” Quinn said. “Every worker has the right to protect a concerted activity under section seven of the national labor relations act. They’re violating that law. They know that they’re violating it. But Amazon’s not willing to put the law above crushing a union. Because they know if we get a union, they’re going to have to pay us more, and treat us better. That’s why they’re fighting so hard.”

Earlier this month, about 25 employees marched on the boss to deliver an unfair labor practice charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board against site leadership. It must be noted that due to the new rules approved by the NLRB in August, if the NLRB rules in favor of the workers, they will automatically win union representation.

Quinn said management told workers they’d speak to them individually, but not as a group. This simply furthers their attempts to divide the workers and break the unionization drive.

He said he’s confident the group will eventually prevail in establishing a union to address those concerns. In the meantime, they’ll keep coming to work and organizing.

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