The people fighting for better lives using barbecues and TikTok23 min read

Reading Time: 13 minutes

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The year was 2020, and the horrendous virus that we’d-rather-not-name had ravaged the entire planet. Everything had been shut down, and people were forced to remain home and not leave. But, the question remained: how long could people stay home before their supplies ran out. And, of course, as always, the answer to everyone’s problems was right there: Amazon. People pulled up their computers and started ordering; masks, sanitisers, and most of all, toilet paper.

In the city of New York, while people’s businesses shut down and employees lost their jobs, Amazon’s business was booming! And, moreover, the people who had just lost their jobs saw the light. Amazon was hiring!

New Yorkers rushed to Staten Island, the home of JFK8, New York’s amazon warehouse. The warehouse was the Amazon’s only warehouse in the city and it was the size of 20 football fields! While the rest of New York went quiet, JFK8 buzzed louder than ever.

Among their 8,000 workers, Mr Chris Smalls laboured away. He was lifting and packing thousands of boxes a day just as he had been doing for years. In fact, despite it’s repetitiveness, Mr Smalls was quite happy with the work that he was doing. During the time that he worked at Amazon, he was a glowing employee. He met all the company’s goals and requirements and hoped to become a manager someday.

Covid-19

But Covid-19 had him worried. He had seen what the terrible disease could do and was feeling rather uncomfortable about the fact that he was working in a warehouse while the rest of the country stayed at home. Nonetheless, people needed supplies, and Mr Smalls and his coworkers were crucial to the country’s plan to send the virus back to the extra-terrestrial hell from which it came.

However, at some point, Mr Smalls got suspicious. He was worried that his managers at JFK8 were not telling Amazon’s workers when other workers and people within their protected bubbles were falling ill. He suspected that were doing this to make sure that work continued around the clock.

When Mr Smalls finally confronted his manager about the fact that someone in the warehouse had Covid-19, the manager apologised and claimed that he had forgotten to mention it. But this wasn’t just any old flu with which one could play fast and loose, it was Covid-19! And that too, before the rollout of the vaccine.

Infuriated, Mr Smalls gathered some other workers in the warehouse and walked out. They could no longer tolerate being treated as human beings whose health and safety didn’t matter. 

In January 2022, one in ten Amazon workers was down with Covid-19. 

The Walkout

Thanks to this walkout, the news started investigating Amazon’s treatment of its employees. And as people opted to leave and protect themselves, Amazon’s work slowed down. Eventually, the US government took note. As you’d imagine, Amazon didn’t like this very much, and they claimed that the walkout was unjustified since Mr Smalls had never personally been in contact with an infected person. The company said that it had already told everyone who worked around the sick person to quarantine. 

Goodbye, Mr Smalls

However, a few weeks later, something strange happened. Mr Smalls was removed from Amazon under the claim that on the day that he organised the protest, he was meant to quarantine. To Mr Small, just didn’t add up. But Amazon was a company with millions of workers and billions of dollars, while Mr Small made just enough money to get by every day. So, soon enough, he was on his way home, unemployed during the world’s most difficult time. 

Mr Small was both afraid and infuriated but he knew that he wasn’t the only one who was disappointed with their status at the company. So, once he returned home, Mr Small contacted his best friend, Derrick Palmer, who still worked at Amazon, and the two decided to fight back. How, you ask? 

The answer lies in one simple word: Unionising.

What is a labour union? 

A union or labour union refers to the banding together of employees to ensure that their employer treats them fairly and provides them with improvements at the workplace. Through unions, people join together to make sure that they are safe and not exploited at a place where they spend a large portion of their waking hours: work.

It is the fundamental right of every worker across most free nations to join together in unions and make demands and deals with their employers. This process of making these deals with the company that has hired you on behalf of all the workers that it has hired is known as collective bargaining. 

In America, the right to forming unions and collective bargaining is protected by The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which was created in 1935.

Mr Small’s Union

That’s right, even though Mr Small didn’t work at Amazon anymore, he knew that he wasn’t the only worried worker in his old warehouse. Small and Palmer got to work. Together, they studied up on America’s laws about unions and realised that if they could put one together, Amazon would no longer be able to simply fire employees willy nilly. In fact, a union could help JFK8 with a lot of their problems, some of which were:

A union could help the JFK8 employees ensure that all Covid-19 cases are being reported on time.

They could try to negotiate for better salaries.

Amazon’s workers work notoriously long hours and often have to keep standing and lifting heavy boxes during those long hours. A union could help reduce these inhumane work timings.

Amazon workers are constantly monitored. Every time they slow down a little or take a minute to themselves, an app notifies the management in the warehouse. This leaves people with almost no freedom to take breaks. Amazon can fire them for something as simple as taking too long in the bathroom. While the government agency that manages labour unions has helped workers fight off some of these monitoring techniques, other techniques continue to remain in place.

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“”We have looked at how we can get packages to customers in a day. But we haven’t figured out how we can get packages to the customer in a day without hurting people””

— A former manager at Amazon

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While there are several more issues, such as a company bus to prevent workers from spending most of their money on travel that a union could negotiate, forming a union is no easy task.

Votes, votes and more votes

A union can only be formed after an election in which the majority of workers vote for one. But even to hold an election, Mr Small needed to prove that he had enough support.

You’re probably wondering, but shouldn’t it be easy considering all of the benefits and rights that unions seem to provide? Well, it isn’t that simple.

Amazon, No Problem

First of all, some people are happy at Amazon. They don’t mind the long days or the fact that they are being constantly watched. In fact, they love that Amazon pays them better than most other warehouses in the country and also gives helps them with their medical bills, and the cost of their children’s education among other things. These people worry that a union could bring an end to all of that. Or perhaps, if they vote for a union, Amazon will simply bring on new workers who don’t support the union and get back to business as usual– just without them. 

Moreover, they don’t want to pay the fees that unions require all workers to pay once they are created.

Unions take fees in order to be able to help workers in need, pay lawyers and representatives and set up insurance for the members of the union.

Union Busting

Secondly, Amazon and several companies like it do everything in their power to make sure that workers don’t join unions. They perform something known as Union Busting. Union-Busting is a process through which companies scare their workers away from unions. Companies spend a whole lot of money and time to convince their workers that unions will eventually be bad for them and could even cause them to lose their jobs. 

Here’s JFK8 General Manager Felipe Santos and AGM Zachary Marc who both called the NYPD on myself and workers organizing a few weeks back. On video lying to workers about what the ALU represents and what kind of representation unions provide 🤮 🤡@amazonlabor #VoteYesALU pic.twitter.com/Q74NhRG5uN

— Christian Smalls (@Shut_downAmazon) March 16, 2022

Amazon spent 4 million dollars last year alone on union-busting.

Mr Small is the face of the union

But despite the difficulties ahead, Mr Small got to work. He and Derrick Palmer set up small campsites near Staten Island’s ferry station where most employees would come every evening on their way home. Tired and stressed out, they would sit with Small, talk about their problems, eat some barbecue, and use TikTok to raise awareness. 

Soon posters started propping up all around the warehouse, and both workers and Amazon’s management took note. In fact, even Jeff Bezos had been notified about it. 

Then something truly terrible happened, a leaked email showed that Amazon’s top management was planning to make Small the face of the union’s campaign. They thought that since he was not “well-educated, smart or well spoken”, his campaign would seem more like the lazy complaints of a bad worker.

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“He’s not smart, or articulate, and to the extent that the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we’re trying to protect workers.”

— David Zapolsky, Amazon’s General Counsel

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This, in fact, was Amazon’s big blunder. Unions are becoming less and less common. He was starting one, that was actually run by the workers themselves. Unlike other unions that are run by professionals who the workers don’t necessarily trust, this union would be run by their barbecue buddy and co-worker.

The vote

It took Chris and his friends over three tries just to get enough supporters to conduct a vote at all. Finally, in December, he got 30% of Amazon’s workers to agree to holding an election to decide whether or not there should be a union. He then took his votes to the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB). These are the people who hold the elections for workers and make sure that everything is free and fair. 

At least 30% of the workers at Amazon must want a union for a union election to take place.

For months, Smalls along with the NLRB raised money and spent it on making sure he could educate as many Amazon workers about their rights as possible. Meanwhile, Amazon made sure they told as many workers as possible about how unions could damage their chances of big promotions and ruin the relationships between Amazon’s workers and their employees. 

Smalls called the union Amazon Labour Union or ALU.

On the 31st of March, the vote began. Mr Smalls held out hope and everyone at JFK8 watched with careful attention– this could change their lives forever.

Each JFK8 worker was asked: Do you wish to be represented for purposes of collective bargaining by the Amazon labour union?

Then, on the 1st of April, it happened. For the first time in the ginormous company’s history, a union had been formed. ALU won!!

Amazon warehouses and factories have tried to unionise before but they have all failed.

Victory

The count was broadcast live to the public. The final tally was 2,654 in favour to 2,131 against.

The union has already demanded “8 immediate changes from Amazon,” including paid time off for injured workers, pay raises, an end to arbitrary discipline, and a shuttle bus to and from the Staten Island Ferry!

The World Reacts

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“Amazon wanted to make me the face of the whole unionizing efforts against them, welp there you go!”

— Chris Smalls

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” We are disappointed with the outcome of the election because we believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees.”

— Anna Wong, Volunteer

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“I am glad to see that worker’s voices were heard”

— Joe Biden, President of the United States

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“[President Biden] believes firmly that every worker in every state must have a free and fair choice to join a union and the right to bargain collectively with their employer. The Amazon workers in Staten Island made their choice to organise a grassroots union and bargain for better jobs and a better life.”

— Jen Psaki , President Joe Biden’s spokesperson

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With Excerpts From: recode, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, The New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, Axios, Hoover Institution, The Harvard Gazette, Economic Policy Institute, and The Intercept