BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Amazon warehouse workers
from Staten Island fi led
a petition to unionize with
the National Labor Relations
Board on Monday, Oct. 25.
Dozens of current and former
employees of the e-commerce
giant dropped off more
than 2,000 union cards signed
by their fellow workers at
the federal board’s offi ces in
Downtown Brooklyn.
“When we stand together,
we come together, we can create
real change and I know the
world is watching and this is
what we wanted,” said union
organizer Christian Smalls
outside the NLRB’s offi ces
at MetroTech Center. “This
is New York, this is a union
town and we’re going to prove
why it’s a union town, we’re
going to win.”
Smalls spearheaded the
organizing drive under the
Amazon Labor Union over
the past six months and hopes
to unionize the roughly 5,600
workers at the JFK8 fulfi llment
center and other facilities
nearby on the Rock.
The union’s goals are to
improve workplace safety, job
security, and boost wages at
the Seattle-based mega corporation,
COURIER L 28 IFE, OCT. 29-NOV. 4, 2021
according to Smalls.
“Jeff Bezos went to space,
came back, thanked us, so
we deserve some more. We
deserve more money, we deserve
a decent living wage,”
said Smalls.
Amazon fi red Smalls in
March 2020 after he led a
walkout over concerns the
company wasn’t doing enough
to protect its employees from
COVID-19.
The independent union
doesn’t rely on existing organized
labor, as was the
case for the failed organizing
drive at Amazon’s Bessemer,
Alabama, plant, where the
Retail Wholesale and Department
Store Union led the campaign
to bargain collectively
against the colossus.
The ALU has been camping
outside the Staten Island
facility for months and
Smalls believes they will be
more successful than their
Alabama counterparts due
to a strong labor movement
in New York and their grassroots
strategy.
“This is different, this is a
different energy. We’re in New
York, this is a union town, the
workers are organizing themselves,
it’s not a third party,”
he said.
They requested an election
for March 30, 2022, the twoyear
anniversary of Smalls
losing his job, but the date is
still to be determined by the
NLRB, he said.
One six-year Amazon
worker in the packing department
said he joined the union
drive due to unsanitary conditions
at the company.
“The working conditions
Amazon workers fi led a petition to unionize at the National Labor Relations
Board in Downtown Brooklyn on Oct. 25. Photo by Kevin Duggan
are horrible. Dirty stations,
lack of social distancing,
dirty pallets, dirty equipment,
it’s just a mess,” said
Derrick Palmer.
The New Jersey resident,
who boxes up goods to ship
them off to people’s door, said
he also joined Smalls in the
spring 2020 walkout, but got
off with a warning.
“I received a fi nal writeup,”
he said. “I was heartbroken.
I put so much into
this company and for them to
retaliate against us just for
speaking out against about
them not having the proper
safety equipment, I think that
was wrong.”
‘This is a union town’
Amazon warehouse workers fi le for union
election in Downtown Brooklyn
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