The Amazon uprising
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today on Post Reports, we follow two union fights at Amazon warehouses with very different outcomes, and what they can tell us about what it takes to go up against a trillion-dollar company.
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In early April, the labor movement saw a huge victory: Workers voted to unionize an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island. Our reporter Greg Jaffe went up to New York to meet Chris Smalls, the charismatic leader of a new kind of worker-led movement. Greg had one big question: Could this movement spread?
There would be another test just a few weeks later, at a second Staten Island facility across the street. Despite high-profile support, the workers would learn that replicating a truly grass-roots organizing effort would be even more challenging than they thought.
Transcript
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| 0:33.0 | So the first union American history. |
| 0:35.0 | Yeah! |
| 0:40.0 | This is the sound of a union being born, and that voice is Chris Smalls. |
| 0:46.0 | He's the guy who made it happen. |
| 0:48.0 | This past April workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island voted to unionize, |
| 0:53.0 | and it was a true David and Goliath story. |
| 0:56.0 | This charismatic guy, Chris, was the leader of the organization effort, |
| 1:00.0 | and he didn't even have an established union behind him. |
| 1:03.0 | This warehouse was the first to unionize in Amazon's history, |
| 1:07.0 | and this moment was seen by a lot of people as a turning point for Amazon and for the labor movement across the country. |
| 1:14.0 | My guess is that this victory in Staten Island will not only mean more organizing at Amazon facilities around the country. |
| 1:22.0 | I think it's going to be a shot in the off for the labor movement. |
| 1:25.0 | By the way, Amazon here we come. |
| 1:32.0 | In the past year at companies like Google and Starbucks and Apple, |
| 1:36.0 | unions have been gaining steam. |
| 1:38.0 | And at Amazon, that first big victory seemed to signal the start of something. |
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