Socialist stalwarts Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised Amazon Labor Union workers during a rally on Staten Island on Sunday for organizing the first successful Amazon union drive in the country.
The rally comes three weeks after 55 percent of workers at the Staten Island JFK8 fulfillment center voted to join the Amazon Labor Union. The union is demanding higher pay and job security.
‘What you have done in taking on Amazon and having this facility here in Staten Island, the very first Amazon facility to unionize in the entire country, is an extraordinary achievement,’ Sanders said. ‘You have taken on one of the most powerful corporations in America.’
‘What you are doing here is sending a message to every worker in America is the time is now to stand up to our oligarchy,’ the Vermont senator added.
But there’s still work to be done. On Monday, the LDJ5 Amazon Sort Center is set to hold their own vote.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez indicated that this victory will be part of a larger effort to unionize other Amazon facilities across the country.
Sanders said at the rally Sunday that this has been a struggle not just happening on Staten Island, but a struggle that is happening all over the country with workers falling behind while billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos become much richer.
‘What this struggle is about is not just Amazon and Staten Island. This is the struggle taking place all across this country,’ Sanders said. ‘Working people are sick and tired of falling further and further behind while billionaires like Bezos become much richer.’
Ocasio-Cortez, who famously helped kill Amazon’s plan to build a headquarters in her district in Queens, criticized the company for not yet recognizing the union.
‘When these workers win fair and square they refuse to recognize their victory,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘Jeff Bezos, Amazon, everybody, we got to recognize the fact that they did this thing and they won a union election.’
Amazon is currently disputing the results, and seeking to overturn the election.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hug at a rally on Staten Island Sunday as they praised Amazon Labor Union workers for organizing the first successful Amazon union drive in the country
Sen. Sanders called the win ‘an extraordinary achievement,’ adding, ‘You have taken on one of the most powerful corporations in America’
Ocasio-Cortez criticized Amazon for not yet recognizing the union. ‘When these workers win fair and square they refuse to recognize their victory. Jeff Bezos, Amazon, everybody, we got to recognize the fact that they did this thing and they won a union election’
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez arrive to a rally outside an Amazon facility on Staten Island in New York, on Sunday where they praised workers for for organizing the first successful Amazon union drive in the country
In the aftermath of their hard-won labor victory, Amazon workers in the New York City borough of Staten Island popped Champagne, cheered their victory and danced in celebration on Sunday.
But their jovial attitude will be tested by a company that seems likely to drag its feet to the bargaining table.
Among other things, the nascent Amazon Labor Union, or ALU, has said it wants longer breaks for warehouse employees, more time off and a dramatically higher minimum hourly wage of $30, up from just over $18 an hour now at the Staten Island facility.
To achieve anything close to that, the grassroots union would need to negotiate a contract with Amazon that both sides, as well as union members, agree on. Doing so could prove difficult.
Amazon is seeking to overturn the election, having argued in a filing with the National Labor Relations Board this month that the vote was tainted by organizers and by the board’s regional office in Brooklyn that oversaw the election.
On Friday, the company submitted material to support its objections in a filing to the agency. A spokeswoman for the labor board said the agency won’t make that filing public while the case is still open. A separate NLRB regional office in the Southwest will likely hold hearings and decide whether to certify the results.
If Amazon’s effort fails, it could appeal to the national labor board, whose Democratic majority is expected to favor the fledgling union. But even in cases when the agency upholds a union victory, companies often refuse to negotiate – a stance that can trigger lengthy legal battles in federal court as a backdoor way to thwart labor victories.
Data compiled in 2009 by Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor expert at Cornell University, found that fewer than half of unions obtained their first contract within a year of winning an election, and 30% didn’t secure one within three years. In the meantime, time ticks away as workers are left in a state of uncertainty.
Sen. Sanders tells the crowd at the rally on Staten Island Sunday that this has been a struggle that is happening all over the country with workers falling behind while billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos become much richer – but hopes now that’ll change
Sen. Sanders and Amazon Labour Union (ALU) organizer Christian Smalls meet workers at an Amazon facility during a rally in Staten Island on Sunday
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a rally with Amazon workers outside the company building in Staten Island on Sunday
John Logan, director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University, says anti-union companies have traditionally taken the view that even if they lose an election, the battle isn´t truly lost until a union contract is signed.
‘There’s every incentive for them to delay the process at every opportunity,’ Logan said. ‘Law firms and consultants who specialize in continued avoidance activity have, for years, told employers explicitly, “Time is on your side.”‘
Even if Amazon goes to federal court and fails, it could still cause a contract delay and potentially blunt some of the momentum a union victory might create.
Chris Smalls, the fired Amazon worker who leads the Amazon Labor Union, has said that since the group won its election earlier this month, workers from more than 100 Amazon facilities in the U.S. have contacted the union about organizing their own workplaces. A neighboring Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, which has roughly 1,500 workers, is set to have its own union election this week.
Experts say delays for a contract can frustrate such union campaigns and undermine employee confidence in organized labor. The result can be a weak contract or diminished interest among workers in organizing.
If Amazon pursues a protracted legal battle before agreeing to a contract, the number of employees at the warehouse who voted for the union would also likely dwindle. Amazon is known for its high turnover rate – up to 73% at the unionizing warehouse in the past two years alone, according to a recent court filing by the company.
One way workers can push back is by employing a strike. That, of course, carries its own risks. Michael Duff, a former NLRB lawyer who teaches at University of Wyoming College of Law, noted that Amazon could replace any striker with a substitute worker, potentially leaving strikers out of a job for months or even years.
Some unions have funds to help out-of-work strikers stay afloat. But sustaining such support can be burdensome for unions. It´s also difficult for workers to survive long strikes, Duff said, something that employers know well.
Connor Spence, an Amazon employee who is ALU´s vice president of membership, says the nascent union is ready to pressure the company by making its case through the news media and by engendering public sympathy. According to a Gallup poll from August, public approval of unions is at its highest level since 1965.
Spence said ALU organizers, who appeared recently at a virtual event with Sen. Bernie Sanders, a longtime champion of labor causes, will also try to persuade lawmakers to lean on the retailer.
‘But at the end of the day, it’s collective action that works,’ Spence said.
Organizers could deploy a strike or a walkout to disrupt Amazon’s operations on Staten Island, Spence said, noting that walkouts have occurred at other Amazon facilities in recent months. The group also plans to set up a strike fund, using donations collected through its GoFundMe page.
Sen. Sanders speak at a rally Sunday: ‘What you are doing here is sending a message to every worker in America is the time is now to stand up to our oligarchy’
Amazon workers hold signs at a rally at the Staten Island Amazon facility
For now, organizers are focused on a rematch with Amazon at the neighboring Staten Island warehouse known as LDJ5. A victory there would give Amazon workers additional leverage during any potential strike or walkout.
Amazon and its CEO, Andy Jassy, have said that while it’s up to employees to decide whether to join a union, they believe they’re better off not doing so. To press its argument, the company is continuing to hold mandatory anti-union meetings for workers – a practice that the labor board’s top prosecutor is trying to get outlawed.
Organizers have previously accused Amazon of confiscating union flyers from the LDJ5 warehouse. Last week, the union filed a complaint with the NLRB, asserting that Amazon has unlawfully barred it from displaying a pro-union sign in the break room. Organizers say workers had been able to display the same sign at JFK8, the neighboring facility that voted to unionize.
Seth Goldstein, a lawyer who is providing pro-bono legal help to the union, contended that Amazon managers told workers that it was against company policy to display the sign but didn’t specify the policy and threatened discipline. An Amazon spokesman said some workers had ‘erected a banner in violation of company policy’ but declined to say why the same banner was allowed to be displayed in the nearby warehouse.
‘It’s an information war,’ said Madeline Wesley, one of the organizers who works at the LDJ5 warehouse. ‘It’s not going to stop us. But we’re going to have to be a little careful, making sure that no one gets to the point where they’re starting to get seriously disciplined or lose their job.’
Source: Daily Mail
