Posts tagged Christian Smalls
Report: Group that pushed Amazon union is ‘broke’ amid infighting
January 23, 2024 // But 21 months later it remains the lone organized warehouse in the US, and the grassroots group - called the Amazon Labor Union - is yet to finalize a contract with the corporation. This means they can't charge membership fees, and vice president Michelle Nieves told the Wall Street Journal that donations have dwindled and they're now 'pretty much broke'.
STATEN ISLAND: Amazon Union Dissidents, in Challenge to Leader, Move to Force Vote
July 11, 2023 // On Friday, the reform caucus sent the union’s leadership a letter laying out its proposal to hold prompt elections, saying it would go to court Monday if the leadership didn’t embrace the proposal. The reform group is made of up more than 40 active organizers who are also plaintiffs in the legal complaint, including Connor Spence, a union co-founder and former treasurer; Brett Daniels, the union’s former organizing director; and Brima Sylla, a prominent organizer at the Staten Island warehouse. The group said in its letter that enacting the proposal could “mean the difference between an A.L.U. which is strong, effective, and a beacon of democracy in the labor movement” and “an A.L.U. which, in the end, became exactly what Amazon warned workers it would become: a business that takes away the workers’ voices.”
Judge tells Amazon: Stop retaliating against employees
December 1, 2022 // According to the decision, the NLRB's argument was that failing to rehire the terminated employee would result in a weakening of the ALU's ability to organize. There wasn't any evidence presented to indicate that, the judge said, adding that the employee "was terminated approximately one year before the ALU was formed." Per the judge, that means this case is distinguishable from similar ones in which reinstatement would be justified. JFK8 employees voted to join the ALU in April 2022, not long after the ALU petitioned the NLRB for the right to hold a union election. Another vote to organize a second Staten Island warehouse in May of this year failed to pass, which led the NLRB to file another complaint against Amazon in September alleging unfair treatment of union organizers. The NLRB alleges the treatment may have affected the vote, and the case is still ongoing.
Unions lobby Biden for bolder approach to student debt relief
June 8, 2022 // Labor organizations have already had some success in pushing Biden on student debt relief over the past year. Unions representing teachers, fire fighters, health care workers and government employees were a driving force behind the Education Department’s decision last year to use emergency powers to expand the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Amazon, Starbucks, and beyond? Young workers fuel union drives.
May 19, 2022 // Much of the energy behind these moves is coming from the newest entrants to the labor force: workers in their late 20s at the tail end of the millennial generation, such as Ms. Ross and Ms. Hyatt, and their successors, Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, who are beginning to land their first jobs. Many exude an organizing zeal not seen in decades.
Nationwide push for unions expands to Capitol Hill after House votes to allow staffers to unionize
May 16, 2022 // The House passed a resolution Tuesday night allowing congressional staff to unionize. House staffers will be able to join a union, if they choose, but it isn’t a requirement under the resolution.
White House to host union organizers at Amazon, Starbucks
May 5, 2022 // The meeting is to discuss "their extraordinary efforts to organize unions in their workplaces, and how their efforts can inspire workers across the country to make the choice to join or organize a union," the official added.
BERNIE SANDERS WANTS DEMOCRATS TO MAKE UNIONS THEIR BIGGEST MESSAGE
May 4, 2022 // He said his team has maintained “a nucleus of the campaign,” roughly 10 staffers, who are heavily focused on supporting labor efforts, connecting with workers at a variety of the flash points of unionization, including at companies like John Deere and Kellogg’s and universities across the country where poorly paid adjunct faculty are organizing.
How Amazon’s unlikely union reflects the changing face of US labour movement
April 26, 2022 // Professional labour activists will be watching closely as the Amazon Labour Union faces its second test on Monday, as workers at a smaller facility across the street begin casting ballots in their own union election. It is unclear if the grassroots strategies that succeeded the first time — such as connecting over home-cooked meals and bus stop bonfires — will produce the same results at other facilities.
Who is Chris Smalls? What to know about the Amazon labor union organizer
April 13, 2022 // “We had over 20 barbecues, giving out food every single week, every single day, whether it was pizza, chicken, pasta, home-cooked. We all contributed giving out books, literature, giving out free weed because it’s legal,” he said Friday outside the National Labor Relations Board office.