This could be a historic moment for the American labor movement. Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to join a union.
NEW YORK — Workers voted Friday to unionize an Amazon Staten Island warehouse, a historic decision that marks the first successful U.S. effort at the e-commerce giant and a major victory for the domestic labor movement.
Amazon, the country’s second-largest private employer, has long fended off attempts to unionize workers at its warehouse — a highly prized target among traditional labor groups who have seen membership wane in recent years.
But a small, upstart independent union led by a former employee of the Staten Island warehouse mounted the first successful campaign to unionize Amazon workers, breaking many of the traditional organizing rules and relying on workers‘ momentum.
The vote could start a cascading effect on other Amazon warehouses in the country, labor experts say, encouraging others to consider unionizing. That could transform the way the e-commerce giant conducts business and prioritizes the treatment of workers.
The Amazon workers at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island will need to ratify a contract to become union members, the next step in an already lengthy process that former Amazon worker Chris Smalls began last year as leader of the Amazon Labor Union.
A separate union vote brought by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in Bessemer, Ala., was tallied Thursday. The union failed to secure the vote, but it was close enough that the number of contested ballots that are still pending could change the result. The final result won’t be decided for weeks or months.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is just Step 1 (but Yahoo! any way). Companies are notorious for slow walking the rest of the process culminating in a union contract.
Yup .
Brilliant. This is the result of a lot of people’s hard work who were on the ground, working hard, talking to people there and walking the walk and not just talking the talk. I admire those folks very much and they earned this victory, which I hope stands.
yes!!!
Such good news!!!
This is a country whereby the supreme court ruled that unions do not have the power to force employees to join. What employee would not want to be represented by a union? History tells us that without unions this country would never have prospered.
Remember when the right wing wanted to destroy unions in this country? The Koch’s for example were instrumental in getting a fake case to the supreme court so as to not force employees to join a union. The thinking at the time was that this would destroy unions however it did not work
Anyone with a five day work week and a paid vacation should thank a union. Unions helped to change the normative expectations for workers.
Watching the national news, I just heard that Amazon spent $4 million fighting this
So–kudos to the NY Amazon workers.
Amazon=AMazing Greed. What $4 million could have been spent on. 🤬
This was easy I copied my response from a Union Facebook page. 1700 workers having been locked out in that union by Charter Communications. In the longest strike in America. The simple fact is that without changes to labor law there is little that can be done when dealing with a recalcitrant union busting employer . And with all the hoopla last year the Unionization rate dropped slightly. But what ever you do don’t call out “Moderate Democrats ” who could not even sign on to the Pro Act.
“Unless Bezos has an epiphany this vote is meaningless. Out of 8300 workers only 2600 workers voted for the Union just over 30%. Bezos will drag this out in court then he will stonewall negotiations. The same as Charter/ Spectrum did. When the Union gets fed up and walks we will see if even the 2600 walk out. Then with 1.1 million US.workers Bezos will send in higher paid replacements, supervisors and workers from non union states.
While he hires and trains replacement workers.
And there you have the real reason Bezos walked away from the HQ2 in NYC. How would the press treat the Union Busting ———– (not censored on FB ) if he had just received 3-5 billion in NYS Tax Dollars . After the press seized on the billionaire space cadet’s treatment of workers, they would question whether he was creating the jobs he promised and /or whether he was creating those Jobs or rather raiding other employers for skilled workers. That was the reason he chose NYC and the DC, Virginia suburbs. The workforce was there. They were the two largest tech hubs on the East coast. He passed up 11Billion from Pittsburgh for 700 million from Virginia.
AOC a freshman congresswoman with out even an office in DC at the time could not slay the mighty Bezos with a couple of tweets. She was a convenient foil and target for Cuomo to blame. For a deal that only he or Bezos could kill.”
(Note the misguided NYC Union Building trades blame AOC for the collapse of the deal.
Want to buy a bridge.)
Smalls the leader of the organizing drive has no idea what he will be up against. However
it is worth noting this is a grass roots non affiliated union. The AFL CIO should be embarrassed that they did not even try.
Joel, two questions:
What changes in labor law are needed?
Do you see Amazon as threatened by the labor shortage? The only article I’ve read on this is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/podcasts/amazon-labor-shortage.html#:~:text=Amazon%20hired%20roughly%20half%20a,the%20company%20in%20recent%20months.
bethree5
So after Summers misses the mark as he usually does the other source was pretty much on the money in terms of Labor and Amazon Labor.
“But the labor pool isn’t infinite. With Amazon’s high employee turnover rate, it would take the company three decades to exhaust the current low-wage labor pool in the United States (presuming all of those people are willing to work for the company in the first place). So in the medium term, the company will most likely look to another solution to address labor instability: automation.”
The JOLTS report out of BLS has been misinterpreted forever. It is not a true reflection of Job openings with the lowest skilled industries showing the largest Job openings hardly a reflection of skills. The Prime age worker participation rate sits where it was for most of 2019 and only a 1/2 point lower than its post Great Recession peak at 82.5%. So if workers are missing from the workforce it is older workers with the resources to retire and perhaps 3 million of them did. They would be unlikely to be from the lowest wage industries. Of course this does allow lower wage workers to move up to fill some positions. But it is a temporary situation as less than expected will be retiring in the next few years,they already retired.
Summers doesn’t see a threat to Amazon from changes in public policy , of course not . Here is the policy that would empower labor .
Highlights of the Pro Act .
1) Many more workers would be considered employees, rather than independent contractors. So much for the Amazon drivers.
2) State right-to-work laws would be overridden. Leveling the playing field between states .
3) Employers would face steep fees for firing workers for trying to unionize.
4). Employers would no longer be able to hold mandatory “captive audience” meetings
5) The PRO Act lays out a timeline for the collective bargaining process and, in the case of failure to reach an agreement, requires timely mediation and the involvement of a tripartite arbitration panel — including one member selected by the labor organization, one by the employer and a neutral third party member.
6) Union organizers would have access to employees’ contact information.
7) Employers would not be able to require employees to waive their right to collective or class-action litigation.
8) A joint-employer provision would likely have implications for franchisors and staffing agencies.
9) The limits on secondary boycotts would be narrowed enabling other unions to have sympathy Job actions against employers not in their immediate bargaining agreement.
No need to invent it , its all in the Bill which basically revokes most of Taft Hartley.
Thanks for all that great info, Joel.
Check out the article above about the borough where I used to work.
On Fri, Apr 1, 2022 at 12:43 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” This could be a historic moment for the American > labor movement. Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to join a > union. NEW YORK — Workers voted Friday to unionize an Amazon Staten Island > warehouse, a historic decision that marks the first” >
This is good news? Out of 8300 workers (in round numbers), 3500 or 42% did NOT even vote. Add those non-voters to the voters AGAINST the union, and you get 5600 or 67% of total workers who did NOT vote FOR their union. What the hell are they afraid of–losing their dead-end jobs subsidizing the selfish and depraved lifestyle of one of the richest men in the world? Do these workers not realize how much of the wealth THEY produce goes to Bozos, and how LITTLE goes to them??
And this in the present economy where so many jobs are unfilled??? This vote is in part the result of a failure to teach labor history and ethics in our high schools.
As Kentucky union wife Florence Reece wrote in 1931:
“Tell me how you stand it, tell me if you can; will you be a lousy scab or will you be a man?” and–updating–
“The bosses drive their space ships, while we walk through the mud; they say their flag’s red, white and blue, and ours is soaked in blood.” Then the refrain’s eternal question–
“Which side are you on, which side are you on?”
They should negotiate stock options.