Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Sep 01, 2025

Amazon union fight continues despite workers' win

Amazon union fight continues despite workers' win

It has been almost a year since workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York voted to start the company's first-ever labour union in the US - an historic labour victory that won global attention. But the fight remains unfinished.

Amazon has been battling the outcome of the election in legal actions.

Efforts to organise workers at other warehouses, including one just across the street, have failed.

Negotiations with the company over a labour contract for the warehouse workers have yet to start - and, when they do, are expected to take years.

Former Amazon worker Chris Smalls, who started the union after the company fired him during the pandemic, takes the lack of progress in his stride.

"We know we're dealing with a trillion dollar company that is going to spend X amount of dollars to try to stop a union from taking place so the timing is just about what we expected," he says.

Earlier this month, regulators finally certified the victory of the Amazon Labor Union at JFK8, the warehouse on Staten Island that employs roughly 8,000 people.

Amazon, which has argued that regulators unfairly tilted the result of the election against the company, plans to appeal. This week the deadline it was facing was extended two more weeks.

"We knew it was unlikely that the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) regional office would rule against itself, and intend to appeal," spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said.

"As we've said since the beginning, we don't believe this election process was fair, legitimate, or representative of the majority of what our team wants."

Amazon Labor Union leaders Derrick Palmer (left) and Chris Smalls

The state of play is indicative of the ongoing questions about the future of America's labour movement.

Despite an uptick in organising activity, the share of workers who are members of unions has continued its decades-long decline, falling to 10.1% last year, from 10.3% in 2021.

That is the lowest rate on record and roughly half what it was when the government started tracking the figures in 1983.

But there are some signs that labour organisers have made inroads.

More than 70% of Americans now support labour unions - the highest share since 1965, according to a 2022 Gallup poll.

Petitions from workers to start unions at their workplaces jumped 53% in the 12 months to October, to more than 2,510 - the highest number since 2016, the NLRB said.

And in the private sector, the number of workers who are members of unions actually increased by nearly 200,000 last year - the first rise in nearly a decade, driven by gains in sectors including transportation and warehousing.

Those gains did not keep pace with the overall growth of the workforce though, which expanded at a rapid clip last year.

Cathy Creighton, director of Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab and former field attorney for the NLRB, says US law favours employers, making it unlikely that the activity will result in long-term gains for the labour movement.

The law does not even have a mechanism to force companies to agree a contract with workers, she says.

"I'm not saying there's not a movement afoot, but the question is: how will it go in the long run?" she says.

"Corporate America is fighting back hard and the government is not on the workers' side at this point, unless the American people realise what's happening, realise the barrier and ask their elected officials to change the law."

She says companies often successfully sap momentum from labour movements simply by running down the clock.

In this case, it has been nearly three years since Mr Smalls worked for Amazon, and the celebrity status he has since acquired has sparked accusations that he has become disconnected from work issues. Derrick Palmer, another top leader at Amazon Labor Union, has been suspended from work since late last year while the company investigates a worker dispute.

Mr Smalls rejects suggestions that Amazon's waiting game will succeed, pointing to new union campaigns in Minnesota and California. He is also due to visit the UK this week, where workers are planning their first-ever walkout.

"Their plan is to stall as long as they can but we're going to be creative on our end as well. That's what's gotten us here," he says.

"We don't want nothing else but a contract and we're not going to stop organising or stop fighting until we get it," he adds. "If the company's really a good company, then it's time to come to the table and negotiate."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×