From Progressive International:

For months, Amazon spent millions to defeat the Amazon Labor Union‘s grassroots campaign to form a union at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York. Yesterday, the Staten Island workers made history – backed by a solid majority, they voted to form the first-ever U.S. labor union at Amazon. 

Amazon failed. The workers won.

They did it. 

The Staten Island workers’ historic unionization comes one week after activists in South Africa achieved the impossible by halting Amazon’s plans to colonize a floodplain sacred to First Nation Peoples. Both victories make one thing clear: the global movement to Make Amazon Pay grows stronger every day. 

Yet, much work remains. While the workers in Staten Island overcame Amazon’s aggressive union-busting tactics to form their union, it currently looks like those tactics may again have succeeded in Bessemer, Alabama, where workers are still fighting to unionize too. 

The Make Amazon Pay coalition fights back against such aggression, both on Amazon’s U.S. home turf and around the world. As the Amazon Labor Union begins its second Staten Island campaign, the Teamsters – one of the country’s largest unions – are stepping up pressure on Amazon across the country. In India, Make Amazon Pay coalition members continue to challenge Amazon’s dangerous disregard for delivery workers in their country, while their allies of Friends of the Earth France won a major case against Amazon’s expansion on environmental grounds. 

All these struggles are connected – and the workers and activists engaged in them must be too. With your support, we continue to build a global common front to end Amazon’s exploitation of workers, our communities, and our planet. 

In solidarity,
Make Amazon Pay