The Economist April 9th 2022 United States 35agoguery”. That did not stop SenatorTom
Cotton contrasting Ms Jacksonwith her
namesake, Justice Robert Jackson, who
went to Nuremberg to prosecuteNaziwar
criminals after the second worldwar.“This
Judge Jackson”, Mr Cotton said,“mayhave
gone there to defend them.”
Ms Jackson deflected questionsabout
critical race theory, how to definea woman
and where, on a tenpoint scale,sherates
her religiosity. She recountedthatwhen
she was a freshman walking throughHar
vard Yard another black woman,seeing
selfdoubt on her face, admonishedherto
“persevere”. Senator Cory Bookerreciteda
poem by Maya Angelou where “bitter,
twisted lies” could not keep a woman
down. Ms Jackson showed patienceand
command—traits she may need todraw
upon as one of three liberal justicesona
courtwithsixconservatives.
Thehearings,howeverhistoric,casta
pall over Hamilton’s vision of fruitful
crossbranchcollaboration. Lindsey Gra
ham,a RepublicanwhovotedforMsJack
sonlastyear,notonlyflippedhisvotebut
gavea doseofrealpolitikduringtheSenate
JudiciaryCommitteemeetingonApril4th.
If RepublicanscontrolledtheSenate(adis
tinct possibility after this year’s mid
terms),he said,Ms Jackson“would not
havebeenbeforethiscommittee”.n
TheopioidepidemicA lethal shift
T
he typicalface of America’s opioid
epidemic has long been that of a white
man from a postindustrial town in the Ap
palachian mountains. White victims have
accounted for 78% of the more than
500,000 opioidoverdose deaths since the
late 1990s. In 2017 counties in Appalachia
experienced rates 72% higher than the av
erage for the rest of the country.
AfricanAmericans were, for once, far
less affected. But that has changed. In 2020
their rate of opioidrelated deaths sur
passed white people’s—the culmination of
a grim trend some five years in the making
(see lefthand chart on next page).
The first wave of the epidemic was
caused by drug companies and doctors
pushing prescription opioids. Researchers
theorise that twisted beliefs (that African
Americans are more likely to divert pills
for street use, and are less sensitive to pain
so do not need them anyway) helped to in
sulate them from the scourge relative to
white Americans. Then, from 2010, came a
second wave: as regulators clamped down
on prescription pills, many addicts turned
to illicit opioids, notably heroin. White ad
dicts continued to fatally overdose at over
twice the rate of black users.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50
times more potent than heroin, brought a
third wave. Though it is also a prescription
painkiller, its illicit form—mainly made in
Mexico with materials from China—has
contaminated drugs. Its low cost and po
werful high make it attractive: dealers can
dilute the more expensive drugs they sell,
such as cocaine, heroin or methamphet
amine, while strengthening their effect.
Fentanyl’s march across black commu
nities has been particularly quick and
deadly. Since it seeped into the drug mar
ket around 2013, opioidrelated deaths
among the white population have more
than doubled, but those among African
Americans have more than quintupled.
There is little evidence that during this
time more AfricanAmericans suffered
from opioid use disorder (oud), so the
deaths are not being fuelled by a burgeon
ing group of new, intentional opioid users.
Rather, the drugs they have been using,
opioids or not, have grown more deadly
with the spread of fentanyl.
Especially so for older black men. In
2020 black men aged 55 to 64 died at over
2.5 times the rate of older white men (see
righthand chart). Andrew Kolodny, mediWASHINGTON, DC
Black Americans have overtaken white
sufferers in opioid death ratesUnionisationatAmazon
Not quite primed
W
atching thevotes comein, Mad
eline Wesley, treasurer of the Ama
zon Labour Union (alu), becomes emo
tional. “We really had nothing,” she says
between sobs. By a margin of ten percent
age points, staff at jfk8, an Amazon ware
house on Staten Island, New York, opted to
form the firm’s first American union. The
aluhopes it will not be the last. “I expect
Amazon unions will be popping up all over
now,” Ms Wesley adds, now smiling.
Plenty look set to try. Organisers say
that since the result on April 1st, workers in
more than 50 Amazon buildings have been
in touch. The aluis optimistic about a vote
at another Staten Island warehouse later
this month and the Teamsters union, one
of America’s largest, has promised to try to
organise other Amazon staff. Success can
be contagious. A first Starbucks café in
America unionised in December; now al
most 200 have filed for votes. National
conditions seem favourable: a prounion
president is in the White House, the labour
marketistightandsome60%ofAmeri
cans say that the reduction in union repre
sentation has been bad for workers.
Not so fast. The alugained traction as a
local, workerled movement, (unlike the
less successful biglabourled drive at an
Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala
bama). Asked why he backed the union de
spite being happy with his pay and breaks,
one Amazon worker replied: “I know the
guy.” That may be hard to replicate. It was
not “a traditional union campaign where
an outside organisation came in and told
the workers what was best for them”, says
Julian MitchellIsrael, an aluactivist.
Amazon itself opposes unionisation,
arguing that “having a direct relationship
with the company is best for our employ
ees”. At Staten Island, it made that case in
mandatory meetings and in posters across
the warehouse. Nationally, it spent over
$4m last year on antiunion consultants.
“Amazon is going to keep fighting as
hard as they possibly can,” says Adam Seth
Litwin of Cornell University’s labourrela
tions school. One option is to draw out ne
gotiations at jfk8: “delays around the first
contract have become “de rigueurstrategy
for businesses in the situation that Ama
zon is in now,” Mr Litwin explains. Less
than half of union certifications result in a
contract. Without one, firms can push for
decertification, and copycat campaigns
can lose their lustre.
Privatesector union membership has
decreased in America for decades. Defying
that trend will be hard: those nearly 200
unionisation elections at Starbucks are
just a sliver of the 9,000 companyowned
cafés. In his final message to shareholders
Amazon’s exboss, Jeff Bezos, pledgedto
make it “Earth’s Best Employer”.Itisun
likelytobecomeitsmostunionised.nSTATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK
Workers of America, unite?
Today Staten Island, tomorrow...Hear more on this story on our “Money
Talks” podcast at: economist.com /unionpod