Employees at Amazon’s Staten Island, New York warehouse have voted to train the first American union of the e-commerce giant. In the vote, 2654 employees said they were in favor of the union and 2,131 were against, according to data provided by the National Labor Relations Board of Brooklyn.
The historic vote is the result of the battle of Christian Smalls, a former Amazon employee fired for organizing a protest in 2020 for greater protection against Covid, which created the Amazon Labor Union with which he obtained victory over the Seattle giant that in the past he had managed to block any other attempt at unionization. “Congratulations, we worked, we had fun and we made history,” Smalls tweeted today.
“Amazon has shown its willingness to put virtually unlimited resources into anti-union campaigns, and truly these workers have won against all odds,” commented Rebecca Givan, an expert on labor relations at Rutgers University. “It’s truly a historic win and probably a big shock to Amazon,” she added.
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