From drivers being forced to pee in bottles to warehouse workers facing almost twice the injury rate of the rest of the industry, Amazon workers have been calling out the company’s abuses for years.
I work at KCVG, Amazon’s Air Hub in Northern Kentucky and the largest in the world, where a lack of job security, overwork, and inadequate wages are constant topics of conversation among coworkers, and have fueled the fight for a union. Each part of the operation is designed to be as hard as possible for workers to organize. Meanwhile Amazon has posted soaring profits over the last two years, making nearly $14 billion in profits in the second quarter of 2024 alone.
But Amazon workers are fighting back now more than ever and winning real victories. In July, workers held coordinated actions around the country for Prime Days, the most profitable two days for Amazon each year made by pushing workers to their limit.
In September, Amazon workers won a $1.50 raise, language class eligibility on day one, and free Prime memberships. Amazon delivery drivers won a $1.50 raise too. This comes just after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that subcontracted delivery drivers count as Amazon employees, and can unionize as such.
At the KSBD Air Hub in San Bernardino, workers recently marched on the boss and won paid time off when smoke from the California Line Fire made working conditions unsafe. And CAUSE (Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment) at RDU1 have begun collecting authorization cards to fight for union recognition.
KCVG Is Amazon’s Achilles Heel
My coworkers and I at KCVG have been organizing for almost 2 years. With 4,000 workers processing close to 30% of Amazon’s “next day” deliveries in the US, KCVG workers are an essential piece to a national campaign to unionize Amazon. Since affiliating with the Teamsters in April, we carried out our first unfair labor practice strike during Prime Week. It is no accident that right after that, Amazon conceded on AC in planeside crew vans and full-time positions for part time associates, two demands we’d made for months.
We recently fought for a $3/hr raise as a down payment to $30/hr starting pay. While we won $1.50, less than our $3 demand, Amazon originally only intended to give a 60 cent raise. These victories are possible because of the growing strength of workers organizing at Amazon as part of the powerful Teamsters union.
Building A National Union Movement
In 2022, JFK8 workers with the Amazon Labor Union (now ALU-IBT Local 1) in Staten Island became the first to win a union election at Amazon, but have yet to win a contract. Struggles like the union drive in Bessemer, AL lost under ruthless union busting campaigns. Most organizing drives were underground or independent like CAUSE, Amazonians United, and the ALU. The Teamsters had only launched their Amazon Division a year before and were focused on preparing the UPS contract fight.
The terrain for Amazon organizing today looks vastly different than it did two years ago, when Amazon suffered its first blow at JFK8 in Staten Island. ALU-KCVG’s affiliation to the Teamsters brought the largest logistics union in the country to the center of the ring with labor’s public enemy #1. This was because of the strength of the campaign KCVG workers built.
Our affiliation was a falling domino that led to the ALU at JFK8 joining the Teamsters two months later. It is a historic step forward that workers at these key facilities and more are now organizing with the Teamsters. The organizing at DSPs has kicked into overdrive with Teamster drivers in Palmdale, CA and Skokie, IL extending unfair labor practice (ULP) pickets to dozens of Amazon locations and DBK4 workers in Queens, NY are now demanding union recognition.
What Strategy For the Teamsters?
The center of gravity for Amazon organizing in the US has moved from the independent unions (like ours once was) to the Teamsters. This gives immense strength to Amazon workers both in terms of staff and legal resources but more importantly in the potential for Teamsters at UPS, DHL, and other carriers to support each other in collective action.
Large unions like the Teamsters come with powerful resources: staffers, lawyers and existing members. However, these strengths can’t replace the need for a strong, democratic organizing committee, as we learned from the two defeats of RWDSU at Amazon in Bessemer, Alabama.
Worker leaders at KCVG drew this lesson and saw the election victory at JFK8 as a positive example of what can be done differently, while also understanding that our independent union didn’t have the strength to take on Amazon alone. Before joining the Teamsters it was important that we built a core of worker leaders dedicated to fighting for bold demands and worker democracy. It has meant that KCVG remains a worker-led campaign today.
Having a strong, democratic organizing structure is key to winning fights with the boss. But it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Even the best organized Amazon facility will not be able to win a contract on its own because Amazon’s supply lines are complex, redundant and massive.
Amazon workers will ultimately need to carry out a well organized national strike including key chokepoints like air hubs to win. Teamsters at other companies, like UPS and DHL, will need to refuse to move diverted Amazon packages.
A serious strike to win recognition and a strong contract then would also require organizing more large facilities and coordinating with non-Teamster campaigns. A bold set of shared demands like a $30/hr starting wage would be a strong basis for uniting a national contract fight across the different facilities and unions organizing at Amazon.
$30 & A Union
The common fight for $30/hr and a union already being called for at DAX8, JFK8, KCVG, and RDU1 is the clearest starting point for this unification around demands. The cost of living continues to rise and while wages are generally rising too, they aren’t keeping pace. While support for unions is at a record high, many workers will not risk their jobs to organize for moderate gains. We want a substantial improvement to our quality of life with real job security. $30/hr starting pay and a union contract is a reflection of that.
It is great that the Teamsters have taken up the fight for this demand at multiple facilities. Bold demands are not empty promises like Amazon and their union busters say, they are goals workers are fighting to win. Sean O’Brien and the Amazon Division publicly announcing support for this would make it that much harder for Amazon to avoid the issue. And if the Teamster leadership put $30/hr and a union consistently to the fore it could inspire more Amazon workers and the rest of the labor movement to organize.
Ultimately, it will be Amazon workers across the country who have the most important role to play by organizing our coworkers around bold demands, and getting strike ready to win the contract we deserve.