I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Monday, April 4th.

All right, let's talk about that first in the nation Amazon Workers Union right here in New York City. That came down after our show

ended on Friday. The historic vote at that warehouse on Staten Island was 2,654 workers in favor to 2,131 against.

So now what happens? And what does it mean for workers at the rest of Amazon, in the rest of New York,

and really everywhere after this milestone during the so-called Great Resignation, and after,

let's face it, decades of declines in the percentage of private sector workers of any kind

in America who are in unions. Joining me now are Jane McAlevy. She's the strike correspondent for the nation.

She's an organizer.

She's a senior policy fellow at the University of California at Berkeley's Institute

for Research on Labor and Employment.

And she's the author of books, including a collective bargain, unions organizing,

and the fight for democracy, which came out in 2020,

and which she was here for for a book interview. Also with us, our Gwen Hogan from WNYC and Gothamist,

who's been covering the Amazon warehouse story. Hey, Jane, hi, Gwen. Thanks for coming on this morning.

Good morning, Brian. Good morning. Thanks for having me.

You wrote, the vote at the Staten Island Warehouse, known as JFK8, is the culmination of two

years of organizing that started with a walkout during the height of New York City's first

pandemic wave. How did we get from there to hear?

Yeah, well, this warehouse opened a few years before that in 2018, and there had been sort of

murmurings about potential organizing. You know, this job didn't become a hard job during the

pandemic, but this was definitely a catalyst for what we've seen in the past two years,

as we've seen in many other industries, how we saw the pandemic kind of kick workers drive to improve their working conditions into high gear.

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