Amazon Labor Union (ALU) members have officially joined the Teamsters, with 98.3 percent of members voting to ratify the affiliation.
With the ratification set in stone, about 5,500 Amazon workers in the “JFK8” warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y. will be represented by a newly chartered ALU-International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1. The union will have jurisdiction for Amazon warehouse workers across New York’s five boroughs.
“On behalf of the Amazon Labor Union, I’m proud of our members choosing a path to victory. We’re now stronger than ever before,” said ALU president Chris Smalls, in a statement. “Having the support of 1.3 million Teamsters to take on Amazon gives us tremendous worker power and the opportunities to demand better conditions for our members and, most importantly, to secure a contract at JFK8.”
Amazon did not comment on the matter.
The ratification moves the ALU in a better position to negotiate a new contract, something the e-commerce giant has refused to budge on ever since the union first organized in 2022.
Amazon has never recognized the victory and has continued to appeal the election results.
With that in mind, there’s still a long way to go for a deal to take place. But tying up with the Teamsters gives the ALU more national credibility, and more importantly, resources to continue the organization push. Early this year, there were reports that the ALU was struggling financially. Additionally, last year, some prominent members resigned or left to form a dissident labor group, which sued the union in federal court to force an election for new leadership.
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Nevertheless, the Amazon Labor Union remains the only labor organization to pull off a union win at an Amazon warehouse in the U.S. Earlier this month, Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research and senior lecturer, Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told Sourcing Journal that Amazon workers are unlikely to get a contract until they start organizing more sites beyond JFK8. Those efforts at other sites, like Bessemer, Ala., have failed to push through.
“Workers at Amazon—in the warehouses or behind the wheel—have proven they have the strength, unity and determination to take on the greediest employer on the planet, and win,” said Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien, in a statement. “Together, with hard work, courage, and conviction, the Teamsters and ALU will fight fearlessly to ensure Amazon workers secure the good jobs and safe working conditions they deserve in a union contract.
O’Brien pointed to the union’s most successful victory last year, when it secured a new five-year contract for 340,000 UPS warehouse workers and drivers, as an example of the direction he plans for the Teamsters to take.
“You can be certain that we will hold Amazon to these same standards, and not the other way around,” O’Brien said. “As long as Amazon exploits and abuses workers, this corporate bully will have to answer to the Teamsters and ALU, standing together.”
The Teamsters have called out Amazon’s delivery service partner program in the past, saying that the tech titan subjects contracted delivery drivers to extreme heat and lengthy hours without breaks. Last year, the union recruited 84 contract delivery workers who say their company, a former Amazon delivery partner, was wrongly terminated by the e-commerce giant. These employees have since generated attention by picketing fulfillment centers across the U.S.
The union has kept its eye on Amazon for a few years now, launching a dedicated Amazon division in 2021 to support and fund workers at the company in their unionization efforts.
Internally, the ALU itself is expected to have new leadership next month in the wake of its power struggle, as union membership voted in March to hold an election for new officers. Smalls has said he doesn’t plan to run for reelection as ALU president. That election is expected to be held in July.
Unions appear to be sustaining their favorable public sentiment, although their participation rates have continued a slow descent. Support for labor unions remains near a 60-year high, according to Gallup, with 67 percent of respondents approving of labor unions in 2023, down a shade from the 71 percent in support of unions in 2022. Those numbers are well above the all-time low of 48 percent in 2009.
However, union membership as a percentage of the workforce reached a 40-year low in 2022, the last year of published data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That year, 10 percent of workers were in a union, down from 20 percent in 1983.