After two years without an NLRB election, Amazon workers in the South built a multiracial, multigenerational, multi-gendered grassroots union, with bold demands that attempted to win the second union election at Amazon. CAUSE, Carolina Amazonians United in Solidarity and Empowerment, filed for a union election during the first national strike against Amazon, during the 2024 holiday season. From February 10-15, RDU1 workers voted on whether or not to form a union. 

Starting in 2022 at the height of a Covid outbreak in the Garner, NC facility, CAUSE spent three years building a structure that ultimately moved 829 workers to vote to form a union in the state with the second lowest union density in the country. While this wasn’t enough to overcome the 2,447 votes against the union, every chance to win requires a struggle and regardless of the outcomes we must learn the lessons to fight better next time. 

CAUSE built a campaign around bold demands like $30 an hour starting pay, 180 hours of paid time off and 1 hour paid lunch breaks. With a clear understanding of us (the workers) vs them (the bosses who exploit us), CAUSE was able to connect a diverse group of Amazon workers together to take on the boss. 

Having a firm belief in a democratic, worker-led union, CAUSE’s campaign had many strengths in their organizing. Part of any action is seeing how strong our union structure is against the boss. A strike action, a petition, or a union election all give a snapshot of how much real support the union has. It shows how many people organizers can move to take action at that moment. Bold demands, worker-led democracy, and building a coalition that represents the whole workplace is what built a union capable of winning over 800 votes. Many workers had a clear sense of who their enemy was and that we had to stick together in order to win. 

But Amazon pulled out all the stops to win this union election, including arresting workers and spending millions on union busters. In a truly disgusting low, the company whipped up fears around deportation with lies about the union being able to deport anti-union coworkers and also that union supporters would be deported. Amazon is getting better at its union busting every time workers attempt to stand up for themselves, and RDU1’s election is no different. 

Especially under Trump 2.0, Amazon feels emboldened to weaponize the police and ICE against unionizing workers. While CAUSE workers made efforts to win over the immigrant communities at RDU1, they ultimately didn’t build a strong enough structure to overcome this vicious union busting. While having representation across a large portion of the facility, lacking 100% coverage on every shift and in every department was a barrier to smashing through the union busting rhetoric. This example, and the large immigrant population that works at Amazon, shows the necessity of unions taking a bold stance against oppression and the divide-and-rule tactics of the boss. Unions must stand for the whole working class, boldly fighting against the injustices oppressed people face, in order to build the united labor movement needed to win any major concessions from the boss. 

The only Amazon workers to win a union election at Amazon, JFK8 workers in Staten Island NY, are still without a contract almost three years after their election victory. Amazon workers have not yet built up the power to force Amazon to the bargaining table through collective action. To build a movement with that kind of power will require a national style of organizing that links all logistics workers into a cross-industry fight for what we all deserve. This “all hands at the point of attack” approach will require massive changes within the labor movement, including the marrying of class struggle tactics with the resources of the established labor movement. CAUSE’s union election shows a snapshot of the current movement for $30/hour and a union at Amazon. While workers didn’t overcome the boss’s power this time, the lessons learned will make us stronger next time.