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Group behind first-ever Amazon union backs campaigns at two more warehouses
https://www.whatjobs.com/news/employment-news/group-behind-first-ever-amazon-union-backs-campaigns-at-two-more-warehouses
By Nagasunder in Employment News, posted July 11, 2022
The labor organization which supported the first-ever union at Amazon is now supporting drives at two more facilities.
Workers in Amazon facilities in Albany, New York, and Campbellsville, Kentucky, are attempting to organize as a union, will connect as official chapters of the Amazon Labor Union.
The worker-led union won the battle at an Amazon warehouse in New York City in April.
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The move suggests the attraction of worker-led union campaigns and raises the likelihood that the momentum created by the original labor success may encourage unionization at additional warehouses.
They emphasized, though, that the scale of Amazon warehouses and the corporation's well-funded anti-union operations will continue to make labor campaigns difficult.
Jordan Flowers, a co-founder of ALU , said: “This shows workers are coming together.
“These workers want to see a union now, and they’re choosing ALU.”
More Perfect Union broke the news about the two organizational alliances with ALU.
Workers organizing at a third plant in Garner, North Carolina, are in also in talks with ALU about collaborating with the union, according to Ryan Brown, an Amazon warehouse worker active in the site's labor campaign.
Chris Smalls , the ALU president and former Amazon warehouse worker, told ABC News: “We’re going to assist them 100 percent.
“Whatever they need: Resources, money, going out there.”
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He acknowledged the labor campaigns in Albany and Campbellsville remain in the “infancy stage.”
Amazon expressed its general opposition to union campaigns.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said: “Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have.”
“As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
ALU, an independent union that was first funded through a GoFundMe website, conducted a months-long organizing drive at the 6,000-employee warehouse on Staten Island, which proved to be one of the most significant labor triumphs in the United States in recent decades.
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Amazon filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board trying to reverse the decision, alleging that NLRB officers were biased in favor of the workers and that union leaders paid colleagues to get their support.
Those allegations have been dismissed by the ALU.
The NLRB hearings are still going on.
ALU lost a second union election at a Staten Island warehouse in May. The ALU's collaborations with employees in Albany and Campbellsville are the first labor activities announced by the ALU after the two Staten Island union drives.
Workers at the Campbellsville warehouse want the business to address the grueling speed of the job and the oppressive heat inside the building, according to Matt Littrell, a warehouse worker active in organizing there.
He said: The same issues come up time and time again, and they have for many years, yet management is very apathetic toward those."
Source: MoodyontheMarket
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