A12 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 3 , 2022
BY JACOB BOGAGE,
AARON GREGG
AND GERRIT DE VYNCKThe unorthodox but stunning-
ly successful unionization cam-
paign by Amazon employees in
New York was propelled by a
burst of new energy by many
worker groups, which have
emerged from the coronavirus
pandemic with new tactics and
edge.
Employees at a number of
other Amazon warehouses are
expected to try to replicate the
success notched Friday by work-
ers at a Staten Island facility.
Already, a smaller warehouse in
Staten Island is scheduled to vote
at the end of the month, and an
election in Bessemer, Ala., is
pending based on contested bal-
lots.
Amazon fought to beat back
the unionization effort, and the
victory against one of the coun-
try’s largest private employers
could provide a new playbook for
workers that are trying to reverse
a historic trend away from union
rights. And while Amazon con-
fronts this new reality, other
companies are dealing with rest-
less workers, including railroad
engineers, coal miners, baristas,
nurses and teachers.
Some of these union drives
aren’t being driven by Washing-
ton-led progressive groups. In-
stead, they are being launched by
upstart, worker-led campaigns
that effectively ambush large
companies still relying on old-
model, anti-union strategies.
“We did whatever it took to
connect with those workers to
make their daily lives just a little
bit easier, a little bit less stress-
ful,” said Chris Smalls, a former
Amazon employee who led the
Staten Island grass-roots effort
funded by a GoFundMe account.
In a statement Friday, Amazon
said that it may file objections to
the outcome and that it was
disappointed in the results “be-
cause we believe having a direct
relationship with the company is
best for our employees.”
The Staten Island victory and
recent successes at six Starbucks
coffee shops in Buffalo were each
accomplished by worker-led
unions independent of the labor
movement’s legacy organiza-
tions. Recruitment campaigns
were deeply personal, with work-
ers attracting colleagues one by
one and including discussions
about civil rights and environ-
mental justice, not just wages
and working conditions, strate-
gies that national leaders say
could be key to the future of the
labor movement.
“If you think of unions as just
for a certain industry or sector
from the ‘old economy,’ that’s not
the case. It’s an outdated view of
what unions are,” AFL-CIO Presi-
dent Liz Shuler said in an inter-
view. “Unions are what you want
them to be. The workers them-
selves define it, and I’m seeing all
kinds of innovative examples of
unions being used to negotiate
their companies carbon foot-
print, and workers in some of
these new ‘emerging industries’
are facing the same working
conditions and challenges
around securing predictable
schedules and decent pay and
benefits as workers in the tradi-
tional economy.”
American union membership
has declined steadily in the past
40 years. In 2021, 10.3 percent of
American workers were part of a
union, according to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, about half the
rate of 1983, when the govern-
ment began keeping such rec-
ords.
But labor leaders see openings
to expand their rosters by orga-
nizing corporations such as
Amazon, Starbucks and other
new-economy jobs, including
tech firms in Silicon Valley and
health-care workers.
Workers are wielding new lev-
erage as the economy emerges
from pandemic conditions with
fewer workers, making employ-
ers more desperate for talent.
Nearly 8 million workers left the
labor force since the start of the
pandemic, and almost 4 millionworkers have quit their jobs each
of the last six months, according
to federal workforce statistics, in
a phenomenon known as the
Great Resignation. It’s led to a
boost in wages as employers
compete for staff; wages have
risen 5.6 percent in the past year,
although 7.9 percent inflation
has eaten away at much of those
gains.
Although they have more pow-
er, workers are still feeling
pinched by higher prices on
everyday expenses such as hous-
ing, fuel and child care, leading
them to press for stronger wages,
working conditions and benefits,
increasingly through unions, or
informal workplace collectives
that resemble organized labor
groups.
“When workers feel squeezed
or that their household budgets
are squeezed while the compa-nies they work for are so profit-
able, that can create agitation
and energy toward organizing,”
said Rebecca Givan, an associate
professor of Labor Studies at
Rutgers University.
Union workers nationwide
celebrated the Staten Island vic-
tory, hoping it gives momentum
to other organizing activities,
including the closely watched
union election that’s also been
happening this past week at an
Amazon warehouse at Bessemer,
Ala., which is the second effort
there in less than a year by
workers seeking to join the Re-
tail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union. For now, Amazon is
ahead in the vote tally, but more
than 400 contested ballots need
to be reviewed.
In a separate labor effort hap-
pening at a mine in Brookwood,
Ala., coal miners on strike for
better and benefits against War-
rior Met Coal reached the one-
year mark on Friday. UnitedMine Workers of America Presi-
dent Cecil Roberts said that his
union’s strike fund was drawing
new donations from the public
and other pro-worker groups
whose spirits were lifted by the
strike’s anniversary and Amazon
votes.
Roberts said a handful of
striking coal miners took jobs at
the Bessemer facility, which is
about 30 miles away, and even
helped organizers there cam-
paign for the union vote.
“You can only push workers so
far before they stand up and fight
back,” he said. “That’s what’s
happening at Warrior Met, and
that’s also what’s happening at
Amazon.”
The labor victory in Staten
Island could embolden rail work-
ers to raise the stakes in their
years-long dispute with the Unit-
ed States’ largest railway opera-tors over wages, scheduling and
safety concerns. Dennis Pierce,
president of the 56,000-member
Brotherhood of Locomotive En-
gineers and Trainmen, said Fri-
day that his group is preparing to
petition President Biden to inter-
vene in negotiations by appoint-
ing officials to mediate an emer-
gency settlement or giving train
workers the authority to strike.
Rail workers fall into a narrow
category of workers that require
presidential approval to walk off
the job.
Historically, unions haven’t
made strong inroads in “new
economy” companies: those in
technology, consumer services
and entertainment. Tech leaders
have over the years cast unions
as bygone relics of older, manual,
physically taxing forms of em-
ployment, such as factory or
mining jobs.
“Remaining nonunion is es-
sential for survival for most of
our companies. If we had the
work rules of union companies,
we’d all go out of business,”
Robert Noyce, the founder of
Intel, spelled out the tech indus-
try’s anti-union position early
on, according to “Silicon Valley
Fever,” a 1985 book chronicling
the tech industry’s early years.
That sentiment remains. Tech
leaders still largely believe their
companies are meritocracies in
which hard work is rewarded
with generous salaries and stock
options. But some of their em-
ployees disagree, pointing out
that these companies rely on
massive workforces.
Workers at a handful of Apple
retail stores have begun to orga-
nize their own union drives. And
last year, Google workers formed
an organization called the Alpha-
bet Workers Union to fight for
better working conditions and
more equality between full-time
employees and contractors.
“Amazon, like Google and oth-
ers in tech, relies on a split
workforce that is extractive and
damaging to all workers — Ama-
zon’s warehouse workers, who do
the bulk of the work propping up
the company, get a fraction of the
pay and benefits given to soft-
ware engineers and others,” said
Parul Koul, a software engineerat Google and executive chair of
the Alphabet Workers Union.
There’s also renewed energy
for unionization in the health-
care industry, as grueling condi-
tions and long hours during the
pandemic have pushed more
workers to seek out better pro-
tections and working condi-
tions. Tens of thousands of
health-care workers at Kaiser
Permanente threatened to strike
in 2021 over the company’s
plans to introduce a system
where newer employees would
get less pay and benefits.
Strikes have picked up over
the past year. So far in 2022,
there have been 589 representa-
tion certification petitions filed
with the National Labor Rela-
tions Board, an early step toward
holding a union election. That’s
the fastest pace of new election
filings than in any year since
2010, according to an analysis of
NLRB data. Last year, 294 peti-
tions had been filed by April 2.
“This is a moment when we
know that workers’ expectations
are rising,” Jennifer Sherer, sen-
ior state policy coordinator with
the left-leaning Economic Policy
Institute. “They were told from
day one of the pandemic that
they were essential, but they
weren’t always treated that
way.”
Not everyone is convinced of
broader momentum. Michael
Strain, an economist with the
conservative-leaning American
Enterprise Institute, called the
Amazon vote “a big win for
organized labor,” and further evi-
dence that the job market is very
strong. He was skeptical that the
curve is shifting in unions’ favor
in the long run.
“The question is: How long are
we in this period where workers
feel like they can quit their job
and go get a better one without
much hassle? How long are we in
this period where workers feel
like they’re in the driver’s seat?”
Strain said. “My answer is: not
much longer.”
Yet, union leaders and their
allies said they hope Friday’s vote
will give non-unionized workers
the confidence to file election
paperwork and bolster the case
for organizing in upcoming elec-tions.
The vote was cheered by Dem-
ocratic politicians, traditional al-
lies of organized labor. White
House press secretary Jen Psaki
said in a news conference that
Biden “was glad to see workers
ensure their voices are heard.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),
said the vote would energize
pro-union sentiment at Amazon
and elsewhere.
“In the short term there will
probably be more organizing ef-
forts at Amazon facilities
throughout the country,” Sand-
ers told The Post. “And more
broadly it shows that working
people are disgusted with the
reality that corporate profits are
soaring, and the billionaire class-
es are getting much richer, while
working people struggle to meet
their basic needs.”
Laila Dalton, a 19-year-old
shift supervisor, as well as a
union organizer at a Starbucks in
Phoenix, said it’s “eye-opening”
to see an independent union take
on a global corporation like Ama-
zon and win.
Dalton has been working to
unionize her coffee shop in Ari-
zona, seeking stronger work-
place safety protections and
transparency around pay and
scheduling. Starbucks spokes-
man Reggie Borges said the com-
pany respects its employees right
to organize but does not believe a
union is necessary. He added
that the company has “pioneered
more innovative benefits for full-
and part-time employees around
the world.”
Ballots are expected to go out
in about a week. Dalton said she’s
confident that the Amazon win
will persuade more of her col-
leagues to join Starbucks Work-
ers United, which is affiliated
with the Service Employees In-
ternational Union.
“I think the service industry is
starting to realize their worth,”
Dalton said. “They’re starting to
realize it’s not okay for people to
be treated badly in the food
industry. They’re so relied on,
and they’re treated the worst. It’s
really opening people’s eyes.”Greg Jaffe and Rachel Lerman
contributed to this report.Worker-led win at Amazon could provide new playbook
JOSHUA BESSEX/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Starbucks employees and supporters in Buffalo celebrate last year as votes are read
during a union election.YANA PASKOVA FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
From left, Gerald Bryson, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union; Eric Smith, union
member; and Tristan Dutchin, union organizer, celebrate last week in Brooklyn.“If you think of unions as just for a certain industry
or sector from the ‘old economy,’ that’s not the
case. It’s an outdated view of what unions are.”
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