2022-04-20 16:16:57

Amazon’s Union Win and Organizing for a Better Democracy



 

Two years ago, Christian Smalls began organizing for a union at the Amazon Staten Island warehouse in New York. Smalls celebrated a hard-won victory as workers at the state’s largest Amazon warehouse voted to join the newly formed Amazon Labor Union.

The Staten Island warehouse became the first-ever Amazon location to successfully unionize, and it is notable that it did so via a brand new union. Last year workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, voted against joining the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RDWSU). Smalls, explaining the Staten Island victory to The Guardian, said, “Established unions had 28 years to unionize at Amazon, and that didn’t work.”

The Amazon labor victory came when 17 Starbucks locations around the country won union representation late last year.

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Rising Up with Sonali is a radio and television show that brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender and racial justice to a wide audience. Rising Up With Sonali was built on the foundation of Sonali Kolhatkar's earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest-running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman. RUS airs on Free Speech TV every weekday.

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17 Starbucks locations Amazon Labor Union Amazon Staten Island New York risingupwithsonali The Guardian

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