7/1/2023 0 Comments B vibe novice amazonHe toiled at Amazon warehouses for a couple of years, then in 2018 went to work at the then-new JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island, where he supervised employees picking items. From 2012 to 2015, Smalls worked various jobs in New Jersey, including stints at Walmart, Home Depot, a grocery warehouse distributor and MetLife Stadium. He had a short stint as an independent rapper (one of his songs can be found on Amazon, though it can’t be played or purchased) but abandoned these aspirations after having kids, a twin boy and girl now aged nine. Smalls, 33, grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, playing basketball, football and running track at Hackensack High School. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.” As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. In an emailed statement, Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said: “Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. The same thing with the union: It represents what the workers want to say.” “I say what I say and that’s what got me here. But he and his allies have come this far with little support from organized labor. “I know I’m a misfit, there’s no shame in my game,” Smalls says. The novice labor organizer has made rookie mistakes, including failing to gather enough employee signatures in his first attempt to force an election at the JFK8 warehouse. In Amazon, Smalls confronts a deep-pocketed foe that handily defeated the efforts to unionize the Alabama warehouse last year. warehouses, but perhaps cemented his position as the face of a new labor movement. If successful, Smalls will have created not just the first union to breach Amazon’s U.S. One can argue with his methods-and some do-but it’s hard to deny Smalls’ achievement. In mid-February and early March, his fledgling Amazon Labor Union won two important victories: approval from federal labor officials to hold a union election at one warehouse and sufficient worker support to hold a vote at a second facility nearby. The first election is scheduled to commence on Friday and run through March 30, while the second vote is set for April 25 through April 29. (Smalls says a judge adjourned the case for six months and will dismiss the charges so long as he isn’t charged with a crime during that time.) 23, the company called the police, and Smalls was arrested and charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration. Time and again, Amazon says, it warned Smalls he was trespassing. Over the past couple of years, Smalls has tweeted photos of Amazon consultants he deemed “union busters” and encouraged supporters to disrupt anti-union meetings inside the gigantic JFK8 warehouse. Meanwhile, he staked out the Amazon parking lot, handing out union literature, playing loud rap music and buttonholing workers as they came and went. warehouse in Alabama last year, organizers generally avoided provocation, holding rallies far from the facility and urging placard-carrying activists to stay off the company’s property.Ĭhristian Smalls, an upstart labor leader hoping to unionize Amazon facilities in Staten Island, New York, has tossed that playbook. (Bloomberg) - When a retail union targeted an Inc.
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