‘They need to know they have power’

After a grueling campaign, Amazon workers in New York have finally managed to form a union. It was preceded by a months-long campaign. “Many Americans hardly know what a union is anymore.”

History is in the making on an industrial estate in Staten Island, but Jefferson Chavry, 26, is clueless. Unsuspectingly, he emerges from one of the square Amazon warehouses, where he – like more than a million other Americans – spends his days sorting, scanning and loading packages. His eyes fall on a chalkboard next to the bus stop. “We are Amazon workers,” it says, “we want more pay.”

Then he sees the table behind which a woman is collecting signatures. It’s Madelene Wesley, board member of a yet to be formed union: the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). Chavry walks over to her with raised eyebrows. “Can you really raise my salary?” he asks. “It’s hard on your own,” Wesley says, handing him pamphlets, “but as a union we can make demands.”

If they collect enough signatures, Wesley says, the first Amazon union could be formed. Employees organizing at the second employer of the United States: it would be a historic moment. Chavry looks around thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps a silly question,’ he says, ‘but what is a union anyway?’

Continue to work infected

The unions in the US are starting to come back from almost being gone. Since the outbreak of the corona pandemic, employees of large companies such as Amazon, Starbucks and Walmart, McDonald’s and Chipotle have become more concerned about their position. Some were expected to continue working infected, others were not paid if they were home sick for a long time. Who else stood up for their interests?

“Indeed, many Americans hardly know what a union is,” said ALU chairman Chris Smalls, 33, in Staten Island. With his sunglasses on, he stands in front of the stop where at the end of the afternoon Amazon workers of all colors, ages and sizes wait for the bus. Hard hip-hop is heard from his black Chevrolet. ‘We do our best to meet and bond with as many colleagues as possible.’

In the US, unions have deteriorated in recent decades, said Michelle Kaminski, an industrial relations professor at Michigan State University. Only 14 million people, 10 percent of the American working population, are members. In cities like Michigan, where the auto industry was located, it used to be 50 percent. “As those industries slowly disappeared because of automation, new sectors flourished, such as the service sector,” says Kaminski, “but it became much more difficult to create unions in that sector.”

Society became more individualistic. Americans would rather become CEOs themselves, live the American dream, than antagonize the CEO. They became increasingly cynical about fighting for rights together. Moreover, setting up a trade union is not something you just do. The rules have become stricter over the years. For starters, according to the law, you need signatures from at least 30 percent of your colleagues. That is hard work, especially when thousands of people are involved.

If there are enough signatures from employees, a company is obliged to hold a vote on the formation of a union. If at least half of all people who voted in favour, then the union can be established. Unless one of the parties thinks the vote was not fair, new elections can be held.

Alabama

The first attempt to create an Amazon union on the other side of the country failed. In Alabama, the company deterred workers with an anti-union campaign. In the end, 738 people voted in favour, but 1,798 people voted against.

Smalls traveled to Alabama to learn from their mistakes. ‘The organization there received a lot of attention and support,’ he says. Actor Danny Glover and Senator Bernie Sanders came to Alabama, comedians Tina Fey and Seth Meyers circulated a petition. ‘But the organizers hadn’t set up a strong campaign on the shop floor. Because the distribution center was still fairly new, people did not know each other. Many did not understand exactly what was going on.’

Smalls and his “army” of more than a hundred Amazon employees took a different approach here on the East Coast. Over the past 11 months, they struck up conversations with as many Amazon employees as possible, at the bus stop and in front of entrances, so that everyone would speak to them at least once.

‘Would you like a muffin?’ Madeline Wesley calls from behind the table to a colleague who is walking out of the warehouse. ‘I’ve already signed, love’, the woman calls back. She pulls open her jacket, her T-shirt shows a picture of several fists sticking out of a box and the text: ‘Amazon Labor Union’.

Laid off

Employers can go to great lengths to prevent the formation of a union. That will be union busting called, says assistant professor Michelle Kaminski. ‘Companies even fire employees who bring it up.’ Officially this is not allowed, but they can get away with it by, for example, giving a different explanation for the dismissal.

Chris Smalls noticed that too. Two years ago, he was fired as a department manager at Amazon after warning his teammates that an infected colleague was walking around the building. But he had to shut up from higher up, not panic, while New York was the epicenter of the coronavirus. Smalls organized a protest, the company demanded that he be quarantined. When he showed his face, he was fired for not following the quarantine rules.

Smalls hadn’t imagined that so little was given to the safety of him and his colleagues. He decided to take action. ‘I had built up a large network, I thought, if people see that I find it important, without me still working there, then those who are still there must also find it important. They need to know they have power.’

Republicans in the past few decades introduced “Right-to-work” laws in 28 states, granting non-union members the same rights as those who are members. The unions were thus further strangled; they lost members and revenue. Because why pay for something you get for free?

But teacher Michelle Kaminski now sees change. “Employers’ power is shifting to employees. The US economy is recovering and companies must make more effort to retain their workforce.’ That makes the position of employees stronger. They are quicker to take the risks associated with setting up a trade union.

Starbucks

You don’t just see that at Amazon. In August, Michelle Eisen, 38, spent ten years at Starbucks, in Buffalo, New York. She intended to stop. “During the pandemic, Starbucks wanted to be the place where people could still have a cup of coffee in peace, where everything was a bit like it used to be. But they didn’t consider our safety. Our work became a lot harder.’

Eisen and her complaining colleagues came up with a plan to form a union. The coffee group’s aggressive counter-campaign failed. In December, a majority of her team voted in favor of creating a union. Now Eisen is being called flat by colleagues across the country for advice on how to form a union. “I say they should never pressure colleagues, they should above all listen to their concerns.” Two more Starbucks branches are now unionized. Petitions are being circulated in about a hundred branches.

What Eisen noticed is that her colleagues of 25 years and younger, the so-called Generation Z, are more eager to join a union. More eager than the millennials, the generation to which she herself belongs. ‘Generation Z dares to make more demands’, she says. “Starbucks announced record profits during the pandemic, which we saw nothing back. Those top men are beyond shame. I’m glad Gen Z knows what they’re worth.’

Trade union researcher Michelle Kaminski also sees a lot of benevolence among this group. ‘Young employees have no mortgage and children. They dare to take more risks. They are often so preoccupied with social justice issues that they don’t mind the idea of ​​a union.’

Generation Z

Julian Mitchell-Israel (22) is one of those Generation Z people who likes to deal with social issues. He sorts boxes in an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. He does this at the request of Smalls, with whom Mitchell-Israel contacted. Smalls’ message: we need you on the work floor, that’s where you come into contact with the people who ultimately matter.

When he’s not working, Mitchell-Israel is campaigning with Smalls in Staten Island. ‘Many staff here do not realize that they are adding value to a product,’ he says. ‘They think, I have a job, but they don’t think: the CEO is rich because of me. That’s what we try to explain to people.’

Friday afternoon it appears that Chris Smalls, Madeline Wesley and Julian Mitchell-Israel have indeed made history. “We’d like to thank Jeff Bezos for going into space,” said Smalls. ‘Because while he was there we organized a union.’ And now he’s going to take a nap. He has barely been able to do that for the past two years.