Current:Home > ScamsAmazon warehouse workers on Staten Island push for union vote-InfoLens
Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island push for union vote
View Date:2024-12-23 14:55:12
Some 2,000 Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island have signed a call for unionization, according to organizers who on Monday plan to ask federal labor officials to authorize a union vote.
The push in New York ratchets up growing unionization efforts at Amazon, which is now the second-largest U.S. private employer. The company has for years fought off labor organizing at its facilities. In April, warehouse workers in Alabama voted to reject the biggest union campaign yet.
As that vote ended, the Staten Island effort began, led by a new, independent and self-organized worker group, Amazon Labor Union. The group's president is Chris Smalls, who had led a walkout at the start of the pandemic to protest working conditions and was later fired.
"We intend to fight for higher wages, job security, safer working conditions, more paid time off, better medical leave options, and longer breaks," the Amazon Labor Union said in a statement Thursday.
Smalls says the campaign has grown to over a hundred organizers, all current Amazon staff. Their push is being financed through GoFundMe, which had raised $22,000 as of midday Thursday.
The National Labor Relations Board will need to approve the workers' request for a union vote. On Monday afternoon, Smalls and his team plan to file some 2,000 cards, signed by Staten Island staff saying they want a union vote.
The unionization push is targeting four Amazon facilities in the Staten Island cluster, which are estimated to employ over 7,000 people. Rules require organizers to submit signatures from 30% of the workers they seek to represent. Labor officials will scrutinize eligibility of the signatures and which workers qualify to be included in the bargaining unit, among other things.
Amazon, in a statement Thursday, argued that unions are not "the best answer" for workers: "Every day we empower people to find ways to improve their jobs, and when they do that we want to make those changes — quickly. That type of continuous improvement is harder to do quickly and nimbly with unions in the middle."
Over the past six months, Staten Island organizers have been inviting Amazon warehouse workers to barbecues, handing out water in the summer, distributing T-shirts and pamphlets and, lately, setting up fire pits with s'mores, coffee and hot chocolate.
"It's the little things that matter," Smalls says. "We always listen to these workers' grievances, answering questions, building a real relationship ... not like an app or talking to a third-party hotline number that Amazon provides. We're giving them real face-to-face conversations."
He says Amazon has fought the effort by calling the police, posting anti-union signs around the workplace and even mounting a fence with barbed wire to push the gathering spot further from the warehouse.
In Alabama, meanwhile, workers might get a second chance to vote on unionizing. A federal labor official has sided with the national retail workers' union in finding that Amazon's anti-union tactics tainted this spring's election sufficiently to scrap its results and has recommended a do-over. A regional director is now weighing whether to schedule a new election.
The International Brotherhood Teamsters has also been targeting Amazon. That includes a push for warehouse workers in Canada.
Editor's note: Amazon is among NPR's financial supporters.
veryGood! (76366)
Related
- Steelers shoot for the moon ball, but will offense hold up or wilt in brutal final stretch?
- Former Packers RB Eddie Lacy arrested, charged with 'extreme DUI'
- Bills' Von Miller suspended for four games for violating NFL conduct policy
- 'I'm sorry': Garcia Glenn White becomes 6th man executed in US in 11 days
- COINIXIAI Introduce
- Scammers are accessing Ticketmaster users' email accounts, stealing tickets, company says
- Opinion: One missed field goal keeps Georgia's Kirby Smart from being Ohio State's Ryan Day
- Coldplay Is Back With Moon Music: Get Your Copy & Watch Them Perform The Album Live Before It Drops
- Real Housewives of New York City Star’s Pregnancy Reveal Is Not Who We Expected
- How Earth's Temporary 2nd Moon Will Impact Zodiac Signs
Ranking
- US wholesale inflation picks up slightly in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
- Which products could be affected by a lengthy port strike? Alcohol, bananas and seafood, to name a few
- Are LGBTQ Jews welcome in Orthodox communities? This is how they are building spaces of their own
- Man gets nearly 2-year prison sentence in connection with arson case at Grand Canyon National Park
- Man is 'not dead anymore' after long battle with IRS, which mistakenly labeled him deceased
- Ex-leaders of Penn State frat sentenced in 2017 hazing death of Timothy Piazza
- Mark Estes Breaks Silence on Kristin Cavallari Split
- Where is 'College GameDay' for Week 6? Location, what to know for ESPN show
Recommendation
-
This is Your Sign To Share this Luxury Gift Guide With Your Partner *Hint* *Hint
-
Michael Jordan’s 23XI and a 2nd team sue NASCAR over revenue sharing model
-
'Pure electricity': Royals on verge of MLB playoff series win after Cole Ragans gem
-
Sarah Hyland's Former Manager Accuses Her of Denying Him Modern Family Royalties
-
Stock market today: Asian stocks decline as China stimulus plan disappoints markets
-
Harris and Biden are fanning out across the Southeast as devastation from Helene grows
-
Subway train derails in Massachusetts and injures some riders
-
New York Liberty push defending champion Las Vegas Aces to brink with Game 2 victory