The Man Behind the Latest Push to Unionize Amazon

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Business News, Daily News, News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2021

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An Amazon employee group formed by warehouse workers in Staten Island filed Monday to hold a vote on unionization. We speak with Chris Smalls, the president of the group, about why he's trying to establish the first union in the U.S. for Amazon employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Yesterday, about two dozen people gathered outside of an office building in downtown Brooklyn.
0:11.1	What do we want?
0:12.3	Here we go!
0:13.3	What do we want in?
0:14.4	Now!
0:15.4	Now!
0:16.4	Some wore red t-shirts with images of fists coming out of a cardboard box and three letters,
0:23.9	A-L-U, Amazon Labor Union.
0:29.0	The Union was there to bring more than 2,000 employee signatures to the National Labor Relations
0:34.4	Board, a key step to bringing a Union vote at four Amazon facilities on Staten Island.
0:41.5	Chris Smalls, the Union's president, said they were sending a message to the company.
0:46.1	They didn't think that we would get here and now look, we put them in a position today
0:50.1	by serving them, that they had to respond to us.
0:52.8	So, you know, now it's game on, we know that the fight starts today.
0:57.7	Smalls and his union face an uphill battle.
1:01.6	Every previous attempt to unionize Amazon in the US has failed.
1:07.9	But Smalls says they've learned from the past and they think this time will be different.
1:16.5	Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business and power.
1:21.1	I'm Kate Limbaw.
1:22.1	It's Tuesday, October 26th.
1:30.0	Coming up on the show, an interview with the man who's trying to unionize Amazon.
1:51.4	Chris Smalls is 33 years old.
	...

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