About

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The Amazon Labor Union is an independent, worker-led, democratic labor union founded by Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York. The union was formed in April 2021 by a group of concerned workers led by ALU President Chris Smalls, a Process Assistant at JFK8 in Staten Island who was fired by Amazon management for organizing protests over Amazon's unsafe COVID-19 protocols.

Amazon fired him – now he’s trying to unionize 5,000 workers in New York

Christian Smalls is taking on the fiercely anti-union colossus , convinced that a union of only Amazon workers is the smartest way to rally Amazon employees

The GuardianSteven Greenhouse

The Amazon Labor Union has grown and won a historic victory in our first election at JFK8, with the support of over 2,500 workers. We have gathered the signed support of thousands more workers, successfully filed for an election at our second site, LDJ5, and we have recruited over 100 people into the Organizing Committee—we are getting stronger and more organized all the time.

We first filed for an election with the NLRB in October 2021, Amazon delayed and schemed, we were asked to gather more signatures, we quickly gathered them and submitted them, we were required to gather even more, and we had to withdraw the petition temporarily—because Amazon fires employees faster than they can make it with us all the way to an election. It's the company's sacrificial employment model—"a vast mechanism that hires and monitors, disciplines and fires"—and its complete disregard for the health of workers that sparked the union in the first place, with firing of Chris Smalls upon protesting unsafe conditions.

We succeeded in filing not one but two election petitions for JFK8 and LDJ5. And then we did what many thought impossible: we defeated Amazon in our first election at JFK8. Now, we're running the election campaign at LDJ5, starting the bargaining process for the newly unionized workers at JFK8, and launching our nationwide organizing and training to empower workers to unionize Amazon workplaces across the country.  

The Amazon That Customers Don’t See

Each year, hundreds of thousands of workers churn through a vast mechanism that hires and monitors, disciplines and fires. Amid the pandemic, the already strained system lurched.

The New York TimesJodi Kantor, Karen Weise and Grace AshfordJune 15, 2021

Hidden Pandemic: Amazon’s Secrecy And Obstruction During The COVID-19 Crisis - Strategic Organizing Center

A new report released by the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) shows that Amazon, despite having announced publicly in October 2020 that it had identified nearly 20,000 COVID cases nationally among its employees, subsequently reported only 27 cases of “respiratory conditions” (the category in which…

Strategic Organizing Center

Who is the ALU?

The Amazon Labor Union is made up entirely of current and former employees of the Amazon warehouses in Staten Island, with many former employees continuing to support the union after leaving Amazon through the activities of the ex-worker committee. Current Amazon workers in Staten Island can sign your support for our election—and union membership will be automatically extended to all workers in the bargaining unit upon negotiation of a new contract with Amazon management. If you work at Amazon in Staten Island and want to join this amazing team, sign up right now!