Update from Amazon Labor Union on Recent Union Campaign News
Indy Audio - A podcast by The Indypendent - Wednesdays
We speak on WBAI about Labor Day 2022 and how it was celebrated yesterday by a rising new generation of bold young unionists. The Amazon Labor Union, joined by Starbucks Workers United and many other insurgent labor groups rallied to demand billion-dollar companies Amazon and Starbucks recognize their unions. On April 1 of this year, the Amazon Labor Union pulled off what many said was impossible — they won a union election at JFK8, an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. The election results were objected to by Amazon and after months of hearings and deliberation, the National Labor Relations Board announced on Thursday that the company’s objections had no merit. The worker-led Amazon Labor Union is demanding the company come to the bargaining table and negotiate a first contract. Since the ALU win at the Staten Island warehouse, workers at three other U.S. warehouses have launched union campaigns. Workers have been organizing in Albany since this spring at the ALB1 warehouse, where a union election will be held October 13-15. For the latest developments with the Amazon Labor Union, we were joined by Seth Goldstein, pro-bono lawyer for the ALU, and Michael Verrastro, a former Amazon employee in Albany who joined the union effort after being abruptly fired.
