Amazon Labor Union Votes to Affiliate with Teamsters Union

By Mark Friedman, Columnist,

Staten Island, NY– As the votes were counted on June 17 in New York, it became clear that nearly 1,000 workers, over 98%, voted to affiliate with the Teamsters Union with certain preconditions. Only a few opposed it. This reporter was present on day one of the three-day voting.

The affiliation agreement charters a new local called Amazon Labor Union No. 1, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (ALU-IBT Local 1), for the five boroughs of New York City. It will have autonomy, ALU-IBT members will be elected to the Teamsters Amazon Division, the local will assist in organizing other Amazon facilities, and ratify its bylaws. The Teamsters will assist financially “until a collective bargaining agreement is reached and ALU-IBT 1 can financially support itself.” 

“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,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a released statement June 17.

Outgoing union president (not running for president), Chris Smalls, told the press, “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.”

“The ratification vote by our members is a historic moment — and it sends a powerful reminder to Amazon that we’re not giving up in our years-long campaign for respect, better wages, and safe jobs,” said Connor Spence of the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus. “I think ultimately everybody came to realize that if we’re going to have the leverage to bring Amazon to

the table we need a national campaign,” he told this reporter in a recent interview.

“Affiliating with the Teamsters and chartering a strong, autonomous local union signals a new chapter for so many working people and this industry,” Spence said. “Amazon workers nationwide are going to win.” 

Spence is running for local president and was one of the key organizers of the union drive at JFK8. Amazon fired him for “violations of its policy governing off-duty access to its facilities” and then arrested Sultana Hossain for “being on company property” at the beginning of the affiliation drive. Both have filed Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) with the National Labor Relations Board. Other ALU campaigners accused Amazon’s security of harassment.

The affiliation agreement reported in the press release says the Teamsters “will provide resources to effectuate an internal election for ALU-IBT Local 1 in a manner so that potential officers may reach, with equal access, as many eligible members in JKF8 as possible.” The jurisdiction of this new local is all five New York boroughs or approximately 20,000 workers, that would go through a similar affiliation process, Spence told this reporter.

The union was certified in January 2023, but Amazon challenged the election through the courts and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Refusing to bargain, Amazon spent more than $3 million on anti-union consultants last year.  Last year, outgoing ALU President Chris Smalls revealed that the Teamsters committed $8 million to support organizing, including tapping the union’s strike fund of $300 million.

Rank and file workers established a Democratic Reform Caucus last year because of the undemocratic functioning of the ALU. There has never been a union meeting, election of any officers on the executive board, establishment of any functioning committees, financial disclosures, or ratification of a constitution or by-laws, etc. 

Facing these obstacles, the Caucus organized in the giant warehouse of 5,500 workers, a committee structure and pressed, with over 1,000 workers petitioning for a union meeting and election. Smalls and his hand-picked executive board rejected the petition. Only through a lawsuit did the Caucus win a date for the union election.

The Caucus slate includes Connor Spence for president, Brima Sylla for vice president, Kathleen Cole for secretary-treasurer and Sultana Hossain for recording secretary. Ballots go out by mail on June 27 and will be counted on July 19.

The latter three and seven other ALU workers recently participated in the “Labor and Youth Activists Delegation” to Cuba at the invitation of the Cuban Trade Union Federation (CTC) and the International Committee for Friendship with the People (ICAP). They participated in many activities including the CTC’s Pasantia, meetings with Cuban workers and unions, the May Day march, visits to the Fidel Center, and the International Cuba Solidarity Conference. Like others in the 55-member delegation of organizations and unions, the ALU workers brought much-needed medical aid. Upon returning to the U.S., they joined in local solidarity actions and were part of the LA Hands Off Cuba Steering Committee.

As the ALU struggled at the Staten Island warehouse, workers at the air cargo hub KCVG in Northern Kentucky, who had begun a card drive with the ALU, voted to affiliate with the Teamsters this past April. The tug and ramp workers at a nearby DHL facility had joined the Teamsters and won a lucrative first contract in January. The Teamsters brought together various organizing efforts and launched an Amazon Division last year. 

David Levin, staff director for Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a reform group within the union that helped mobilize United Parcel Service workers during last year’s successful contract campaign, said many Teamsters members involved in pressuring UPS were now helping Amazon workers organize. 

Levin told the New York Times that the worker-leaders and activists are coming out of the UPS contract campaign and getting involved in building Amazon volunteer organizing committees.