As the president of the Amazon labor union celebrates victory for unionization of the Staten Island warehouse, he tore in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Last minute retreat from participating in a pro-labor rally and go slow in support of the movement.
‘Any message specifically for the AOC?’ News outlet StatusCoup asked Chris Smalls, the organizer behind the successful unionization of the nation’s first Amazon warehouse. He said, ‘Hell no, I’m not giving it to him… He doesn’t deserve this moment.’
Amazon has deployed aggressive tactics to thwart unionization efforts for decades, and with little funding, the unionization effort by Smalls and his team was a long shot. But with political and economic winds in their favor – a tight labor market and a pro-union National Labor Relations Board under President Biden, workers at the fulfillment center known as JFK8 voted in support of the Amazon labor union. . ,
ALU president Chris Smallstore withdrew at the last minute to attend a pro-labor rally in Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and slowed his support for the movement.
Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizer Christian speaks to small media as ALU members celebrate an official victory after hearing results about the vote to unionize outside NLRB offices in Brooklyn, New York City, US, April 1 .
Last summer, Smalls said he had gone to Washington, D.C., while members of the squad were sleeping. Capital He was trying to make an appearance at a pro-union rally at a Staten Island warehouse in August to protest against the expiration of the eviction period.
Smalls said he personally invited New York progressives like the AOC and Mondaire Jones. “When I met him in person, he was positive,” he said on the Crystal Kyle & Friends podcast. ‘I met Corey Bush on the stairs. I brought the ALU shirt for him. We tried to persuade them to come there. The AOC was like ‘yeah, take my info’.
Smalls said he had three meetings with his staff members. ‘Everything was good till the last second of reaching the rally. They were like ‘Yeah, they can’t make it’. I was like wow.’
‘He didn’t tell me the real reason, plus there’s a security threat to the AOC and I’m like, I was sleeping on the stairs with him in DC, there was no security. Maybe someone was there. It didn’t make sense because he said he canceled all his in-person meetings for the rest of the month, then at the Met Gala.
When the unionizing vote was announced last Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted muscle-flexing emojis in support, criticizing Crystal Ball, Crystal Kyle and Friends and Breaking Points podcast co-host and progressive journalist Jordan Chariton. . ,
“These are your constituents and can’t even bother to show you until they’re on the verge of victory,” Ball wrote on Twitter.
‘The warehouse is not in my district and maybe you should look at a map before making such a claim. Barring the scheduling conflict, we have requested an inspection investigation at Amazon, interviewed Amazon employees at Woodside Warehouse, and more. Hope you work harder next time,’ Ocasio-Cortez replied.
Smalls hit back at Congressman: ‘Smh @AOC Those terrible workers from your district definitely come to Staten Island. I know them personally. Maybe you should do your hard work.’
Chariton jumped: ‘I was told by activists that your guys told them at the last minute it was a safety issue – not a scheduling conflict. Your district or not, you’d think any New York congressman could tweet support—especially in the final weeks—for one of the most important union drives in America.
JFK8 in Staten Island is the first Amazon warehouse to successfully unionize
‘Safety was also an issue. 2021 involved a lot of high level threats to my life that limited what activities I was able to do, especially outside. The combination of that + scheduling + logistical conflicts arise when we are able to get the resources/time to secure them,’ Ocasio-Cortez said.
‘With respect, there are no security concerns with sending support to @amazonlabor trying to win the first unionized Amazon to 13 million followers. Your voice and power to organize makes a difference,’ said Charitan.
“No worries about safety at the Met Gala,” Ball said with a surprised emoji.
Smalls said he was also blown away by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. ‘I was even talking with Bernie’s guys, they were going to bring you into Congress to testify, ‘Oh, that never happened.’
The JFK8 Amazon facility voted 2,654 to 2,131 in favor of unionizing. At the conclusion of the counting of votes, the NLRB stated that the number of employees eligible to participate in the poll was 8,325.
The Center is now poised to become the first and only Amazon warehouse out of 110 in the union-forming states.
The company employs about 1.3 million employees nationwide, and is on pace to surpass Walmart as the largest private employer in America within a year or two.
Organized labor’s victory over the second-largest US private employer is a historic first for retailing in the United States and a milestone for labor advocates, who for years have seen Amazon’s labor practices as a threat to workers. .
Small was a manager at the Staten Island facility until he was fired in 2020 for breaking social distancing rules, participating in a walkout he helped settle unsafe working conditions at the height of the pandemic.
Amazon hit the headlines when its lead attorney mistakenly sent an email to more than 1,000 people describing Smalls as “not smart, or outspoken” and calling him the “face” of efforts to organize workers. . It was recommended to make
“Amazon wanted me to be the face of the entire union’s efforts against him,” Smalls wrote in a tweet Friday. Go there!
Smalls, along with her friend Derrick Palmer from the warehouse, have spent the past 11 months spreading awareness about their unionization efforts with homemade baked ziti, empanadas and West African rice at the bus stop outside the warehouse to appeal to workers. The dishes brought, many of them were different. background.
As the New York Times reports, he had no affiliation with any national labor organization and while he spent about $120,000 on his efforts, Amazon spent about $4.3 million on anti-union advisors last year.
The successful unionization vote comes on the heels of a string of Starbucks stores that have also voted to settle.
A House oversight panel led by Reps Carolyn Maloney, NY, Ocasio-Cortez and Corey Bush, Mo., launched a federal investigation Friday into Amazon’s labor practices. He wrote a letter to Amazon requesting documents on the company’s labor policies and procedures, especially during extreme weather events. Last year a tornado killed six workers in Edwardsville, Illinois, and workers after that said they were told by supervisors they would be fired if they left their shifts early to find shelter.