Winning the fight for workplace democracy

“While Jeff Bezos was up in space, we were down here organising,” thundered Christian Smalls, leader of the Amazon Labor Union (AWU) whose recent victory to form a union in Staten island has reverberated with workers across the world.

The impossible was accomplished.

After decades of attempts in the US to organise an Amazon warehouse failed, the workers at the Staten Island fulfilment centre won an extremely significant victory. While many mainstream commentators continue to play out tired talking points that the death knell has sounded for the labour movement, Small and the thousands of workers who own this victory argue otherwise.

How did they do it?

There is no winning formula to forming a union; however, there are a few lessons that need to be repeated. First, workers organised to fight racism. Their organising was premised on building a multiracial coalition, where workers came together to fight for their common interests. This includes fighting for better occupational health and safety in the workplace.

During the pandemic, while workers were deemed essential workers, in their workplaces they were treated anything but. As COVID-19 numbers increased, organisers were able to bring people together to identify their concerns regarding lack of protective gear, social distancing, and how the company prioritised profits over people’s lives. Forming a union was seen as one solution to strengthen workers’ decision-making within the same place.

Fighting racial divisions was also critical to why the union won. Organisers prioritised fighting racism as one of the main goals of their union, and forming a collective voice for workers was seen as one tool in their arsenal to take away employer’s ability to pit workers against each other.

Organisers turned anti-union talking points on their head. While union busters claimed that outside agitators were trying to disrupt the workplace, the ALU were able to articulate to their co-workers that the leaders of this effort were fellow workers who worked side by side with them on the shop floor.

When organisers felt that their efforts to organise did not resonate with specific communities, they turned to providing food as a means to bring people together.

Let’s never underestimate the role of food in building community, breaking down divisions, and as a starting point for conversations for change.

The ALU studied history.

They turned to the writings of William Z. Foster, specifically his O rganizing Methods in the Steel Industry, to learn the nuts and bolts of organising. The ALU used social media tools such as TikTok to reach members, adapting their organising tools to fit their specific circumstances. Organised labour has its work cut out in the US.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 6.1 per cent of private-sector workers belong to a union; bosses are spending millions to lobby politicians and ensure laws continue to be wielded to prevent an uptake in unionisation. However, as Montreal-based organiser Mostafa Henaway recently wrote in his expos’e on Amazon and its anti- union efforts (it) “ doesn’t mean we can’t organise and win, because workers organise every day despite their fatigue and enormous odds. As I exited bleary-eyed from the warehouse on the morning of my last shift, I envisioned an army of Amazombians, arising from slumber and lurching together in great numbers towards labour rights and better working conditions.”

This May Day, we celebrate the efforts of Amazon workers, and millions of others who struggle for decency, fairness and workplace democracy.

Chris Ramsaroop is an organizer with the activist group Justice for Migrant workers, an instructor in the Caribbean Studies Program at the University of Toronto and a clinic instructor at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law.