Amazon Union Busting
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Although with extremely low turnout, the charlatan Chris Smalls was ousted as head of the Amazon Labor Union the other day, with a reform caucus based on ideas of democracy and, you know, not creating a cult of personality winning. The low turnout gives me pause on how much it matters. The ALU has also affiliated with the Teamsters, so there are a lot more resources behind it now. We’ll see how much difference it makes.
One thing we can say though is that Amazon continues to engage in unhinged unionbusting.
Seven union activists with the Teamsters were handcuffed, detained and criminally charged while protesting outside an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island last month, as tensions between the e-commerce giant and the powerful union escalate.
Video footage of the July 17 protest obtained by The Washington Post shows New York Police Department officers rounding up and restraining union leaders — including Teamsters officials and local warehouse union activists — after warning them they would be “subject to arrest,” for remaining on “Amazon property,” amid a crowd of protesters.
The Teamsters say the incident took place on public land outside the warehouse, where police have informed workers they can safely protest. An NYPD officer says in a video that the protesters were on Amazon’s property. But NYPD officials told The Post they could not provide details about the incident because there was no police report.
“This is what union busting is all about,” Antonio Rosario, the Teamsters’ lead Amazon organizer in New York, yelled into a megaphone, as local police threaten to arrest protesters, video footage shows. “This is not Amazon property,” he later added.
The Teamsters’ demonstration, which included a picket and rally, was timed to coincide with Amazon Prime Day.
Mary Kate Paradis, an Amazon spokeswoman, said in a statement that “all non-employees were asked to leave our property,” and that after several attempts to ease the situation, the company had “engaged local law enforcement, as is our standard protocol.”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
The crackdown on organizers comes not long after the Amazon Labor Union officially affiliated with the Teamsters, a new partnership that marked an escalation of the fight to organize Amazon, including the warehouse complex in Staten Island that serves New York City.
Not surprising. The Biden administration needs to start intervening here and punishing Amazon.