There’s a lot going on in the world, much of it heartbreaking and rage-inducing, but a good thing happened this week too: A fired NYC Amazon warehouse worker, Christian Smalls, and his friend Derrick Palmer, fought Amazon for the right to unionize and won. Here’s an excerpt from a NYT article that’s worth a click:
For all their David-versus-Goliath disadvantages, the Staten Island organizers had the cultural moment on their side. They were buoyed by a tightened labor market, a reckoning over what employers owe their workers and a National Labor Relations Board emboldened under President Biden, which made a key decision in their favor. The homegrown, low-budget push by their independent Amazon Labor Union outperformed traditional labor organizers who failed at unionizing Amazon from the outside, most recently in Bessemer, Ala.
“I think it’s going to shake up the labor movement and flip the orthodoxy on its head,” said Justine Medina, a box packer and union organizer at JFK8 who had waited with an exuberant crowd in Brooklyn to hear the vote results.
The future of American unionizing efforts “can’t be about people coming in from the outside with an organizing plan that people have to follow,” said Sara Nelson, head of the flight attendants’ union, in an interview. “It has to come from within the workplace.”
Nelson makes a great point about inside vs. outside efforts. Local seems to work better lately. The federal minimum wage is still $7.25 (and has been since 2009), but the grassroots Fight for $15 movement created a groundswell that resulted in a proposal for a $15 federal minimum wage being reflected in the Democratic Party platform, legislative action by Congressional Democrats (ultimately sunk by Republicans +2) and lots of local and state wage hike victories.
The “cultural moment” referenced above has given workers more power than they’ve had for generations. It’s a good thing.
Open thread!
Benw
OT: if anyone’s looking for some new tunes, Joan Jett’s new album is fantastic!
debbie
It’ll be interesting to see how other unions big in Staten Island take this (police, firefighters, etc.). On the one hand, a victory for unions; on the other hand, will this union stand up and salute MAGALand as vociferously as they do?
Eolirin
@debbie: Police and Firefighter unions have historically been very anti other unions. They’re not allies of labor more broadly and never have been.
debbie
@Eolirin:
I’m not surprised. Thanks.
Baud
This part will be me memory holed. People don’t understand the concept of setting the table anymore.
BTW good on this NYT reporter for mentioning it.
Eolirin
@Baud: Yeah, especially given how close that vote was.
different-church-lady
Seeing that statement, it seems like it ought to have been a completely obvious “Duh!” kind of thing. Yet it never occurred to me this might be the key to the entire problem of how to return unions to a powerful place in the labor/capital struggle, and overcome the vilification of unions in the American mindset.
Alison Rose ???
The fact that the federal minimum wage is $7.25 is just so utterly absurd. It is literally impossible to live on that unless you share a home with like six other people. Hell, even $15 an hour is impossible to live on, at least in my area and probably in about 90% of the country. But you get these older lawmakers who are like “well I made 75 cents an hour and paid my way through college and bought a home at 21 years old” and it’s like, yes how nice that this was possible when you were younger, back in the 1830s.
Villago Delenda Est
@Eolirin: They are basically gang treehouses. Fuck them.
narya
The Starbux stores have been organizing one by one as well (according to Jorts . . .), and those appear to be grassroots efforts, too.
Brooklyn Dodger
@Benw: Will check that out, grazie!!
eclare
@Baud: Very good to mention. Elections have consequences part infinity.
Baud
@Alison Rose ???:
It’s purely partisan + Manchin.
Ben Cisco
The Bessemer fight took place not far from me. I’ll say that given general attitudes here, I was surprised it went as far as it did, and was (relatively) as close as it was. There is a very deep, and deeply uninformed, hatred of unions in this state.
Still, I’d have been shocked at the mere attempt only a few years back, so…
Alison Rose ???
@Baud: that’s true
cope
From the NYT article excerpt at LGM, Amazon management didn’t help their own cause when one of them mistakenly sent an email to over a thousand people characterizing Mr. Smalls as “…not smart, or articulate…”.
jonas
@debbie: My impression from the article is that a majority of the Amazon workers are immigrants and POC. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re treated with indifference, if not some hostility, by the almost entirely white PD and FD unions.
cain
Hopefully, unionizing efforts will start happening around the country. I expect our GOP people to start passing laws that are anti union in reaction .. but they should be careful. This isn’t like the culture wars.
cain
@jonas:
The lawyer for Amazon was pretty racist in his comments and decided that he would make this young man the face of the union.
Kay
It is exciting. There’s real divisions in established unions between older workers and younger workers. Younger workers (understandably) value wages over benefits like health care (insurance) and they think there has been too much trading of wages for future benefits. They have a point. You’re at a different point in your life when you’re 30. You need money, not a better insurance policy. The flip side of that is the older workers say it’s the younger workers own fault because the youngs don’t get involved enough in the union so have less input. The Amazon and Starbucks unions will be young. It’ll be different.
jonas
@Ben Cisco: Yep. There’s a long tradition in the South of portraying unions as northern carpetbagging conspiracies designed to keep the southern economy down and put n-*CLANG!”s and communists in charge.
There’s an old quote by Lyndon Johnson that comes to mind….
Sure Lurkalot
There’s a national chamber of commerce. My state (and I bet yours) has one as does my city and many retail/workplace subunits (e.g. Cherry Creek Chamber of Commerce), all tolled, there are 4,000 chambers. So, business and business owners can pool their ideas and strategies together but when it’s workers, it is some nefarious plot that slippery slopes to communism or socialism or Marxism.
Joe Falco
@Alison Rose ???:
The other problem apart from living cost alone is zoning laws in most of the country do not allow for group homes with unrelated people living together or if they do, they have to be permitted through elected officials. So unless you and your entire family are working, your housing choices are even more limited and can favor abusive relationships to continue lest you’re willing to become homeless.
Rocks
@Alison Rose ???: If the minimum wage had increased at the same rate as CEO pay and bonuses over the last 40 years, it would be about $60 per hour right now.
Ben Cisco
@jonas: Yup..
For Raven, the obligatory “Fuck LBJ” applies, of course.
Suzanne
@Kay:
Yes 100%. Honestly, take the money now. Pension plans get screwed and I would never have confidence that they would still exist in 30 years or whatever. I’ve never stayed at a job long enough to vest. It’s not worth it to stay when you can get a significant bump in pay by switching companies. I also feel like I’m paying for the Boomer generation’s social safety net already, so I’m not inclined to take less money now.
WaterGirl
@cope: Is Mr. Smalls by any chance, black?
eclare
@cain: Was he also uppity?
Alison Rose ???
@Rocks: But we can’t have that, then no one would be poor which would make all those CEOs have a big sad!!!!
eclare
Redacted.
eclare
@WaterGirl: Yes. He is Black. Shocker!
MagdaInBlack
@Sure Lurkalot: There are all kinds of trade and business associations whose purpose is to promote that industries legislation and best interests. Yet, as you say, unions are omg communism.
laura
Stunning Good News. People waking up to their power. I’m pissed that David Weill’s nomination to the NLRB is being held up by the usual fuckers. I’m glad a certain fameseeking public servant is getting a comeuppance and I’m thrilled that Jorts is using his and Jean’s twitter fame to highlight workers and their workplaces.
For those outside of Sacramento, our Mayor Darrell Steinberg was on fire on my radio about the senseless nother day of freedom in America. He is out of fucks left to give about our gun sickness.
WaterGirl
@eclare: Well then, to respond to your comment that was posted immediately after mine…
Since we now know he is black, I can say with certainty that of course they thought he was uppity.
The vote was a great victory!
Ben Cisco
@WaterGirl: Why, yes, yes he is. Why do you ask?
\
ETA: Beaten to it by EVERYBODY
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
Capitalists respect other capitalists.
Workers do not respect other workers.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: Could that be because we ( the workers) have been pitted against each other for so long ? “They’re stealing our jobs.” ” Why should they makes so much?” etc.
Divide and conquer. Keep us blaming each other rather than looking up at the real source.
Ben Cisco
@MagdaInBlack: “Crabs in a bucket” syndrome is a real thing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Alison Rose ???:
One thing I’ve never understood is why, in say the heyday of the New Deal up until probably the Great Society, there was support for a national minimum wage but apparently not to chaining it to the CPI (or period equivalent because I think the Labor Department changed the measure in the 70s
Voters in Ohio enshrined a state minimum wage that was chained to CPI in 2006. It’s currently at $9.30, which isn’t enough, but is still better than simply leaving it at the same level for years until legislators decide to raise it
Ben Cisco
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The same reason TPTB don’t want worker gains to be proportionally commensurate with owner gains (even though the former is in fact responsible for the latter). Zero-sum theory is imbedded deep in this lot. They’ll never give it up willingly.
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
To me, that sounds like “both sides.” I think it’s more like some classes of workers punch down on other classes.
MagdaInBlack
@Ben Cisco: Yup.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: I perhaps phrased it improperly. Both sides was not my intent.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I think it’s because minimum wage increases usually exceeded the CPI during that period. But someone can fact check me.
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
I know. You were describing it the way I often see it described. I just believe creates more problems than it solves to describe it that way.
Ruckus
@Sure Lurkalot:
When I opened my new small business in 2006 the local chamber of commerce called and invited me to speak about my business at their local meeting. When I arrived and was introduced they asked if I wanted to speak. When I said yes they told me there was a speaking charge for non members. I looked around silently for a moment and started to gather up my notes to leave they said that it was not a mandatory cost. I’ve never actually liked being in a room with a group of pompous arrogant assholes and that day was no different. And I saw that there was zero reason to become a member. I didn’t need to pay to become a member of a circle jerk.
Baud
@Ruckus:
Not when Balloon Juice is free.
Betty
@Baud: Sinema made a grand gesture in that particular vote. The famous curtsey.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Exactly.
Baud
@Betty:
True. I forgot about that.
Betty
@laura: My understanding is that Weil is out because of the two usual suspects plus Mark Kelly.
Baud
@Betty:
That’s disappointing. But a good reminder that Kelly still represents Arizona.
Betty
@Baud: And is up for re-election. The reality of what an uphill battle this is.
japa21
Has Steve in WTF contacted Amazon to see if he can be put on retainer to keep this union in its place? //
Anyway
@jonas:
I know staunchly Democratic Mississippians who don’t get unions at all and are almost anti-union, one might say.
Don’t know if this is a fair assessment of other Southern states.
taumaturgo
@Betty: Is getting harder and harder to distinguish which party is pro-labor. It seems that when the chips are down if there is any significant difference both default to safeguard the “job creators.” No denying that Biden is being mortally wounded by friendly fire.
politico.com/news/2022/03/30/david-weil-wage-hour-nom-senate-00021860
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Suzanne:
This is why I’ve started investing in an IRA with passive index funds. 40 years is a very long time and the # of workers contributing to the pension is likely to decline over the next few decades. Same story with Social Security, although that could at least be fixed by Congress
Ruckus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Most of the people who pay employees want the most work for the very least pay, most often because they never or at least very rarely have ever done the jobs that they are paying for. The are above that. Snooty bastards. And yes I’ve been an employer and signed paychecks. I did say most… Also I started working at that company at the bottom and was paid minimum wage, so I think I have a better understanding of both sides. And I’ve worked minimum wage at other jobs. And I’m old enough that minimum wage was $1.25/hr. Even then that wasn’t much.
The other side is that the people that often set the wages are not the owners and the owners demand the most profit for the least cost and employees are one of, if not the highest cost areas of most businesses. The concept that maximum profit is the one and only rational for a business/stockholders is a major part of the issue as well. A company has to have a profit to stay in business but the workers should have a profit as well. IOW workers should not go in the hole every payday because the boss wants to add another 20 acres to surround his mansion.
Matt McIrvin
Amazon is trying to fight the result in the courts, claiming undue interference from the NLRB, and on LGM they’re speculating that the Supreme Court might just nullify the union vote because fuck workers. I don’t have much feel for the probability of that.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@taumaturgo:
Yes, because 3 members = the entire Democratic Party. Give me a fucking break with “Is getting harder and harder to distinguish which party is pro-labor”
Total ?
Baud
@taumaturgo:
I appreciate that you are a persistent anti-Dem troll. But this type of argument
is an old saw of the left, and in the year 2022 it really makes them look quite stupid. I can only hope that leftists that have some pride will stop trying to pretend that an imperfect Democratic party is in any way comparable to the GOP.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
LGM is kinda notoriously doom and gloomy imo
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: If it gets nullified by the lower courts, the Supreme Court doesn’t have to get involved.
I don’t know what Amazon’s argument is, so I can’t even hazard a guess as to their chances of winning.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Even if it got nullified, which is not good, couldn’t there just be another vote? Which the workers would likely win again?
Betty
@Matt McIrvin: Just a guess, but I believe if that election is overturned, the next election will be an even bigger win for the union.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The workers will likely have changed by then. Who knows?
Ken
@cain: @Matt McIrvin: “Why should a mere majority of worker votes impose the union on all employees, when our Constitution requires a 60% vote in the Senate to pass a law?”
Betty
@Baud: Good point. They said the turnover rate is is extremely high.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ben Cisco:
No, they will not. Still though, that era was much more labor friendly
@Baud:
That could be a reason, but even during the 70s when inflation was as high as it was?
Ruckus
@Betty:
Low wages and shitty working conditions/expectations usually result in a high turnover rate. And the owners often get away with it if the unemployed rate is high enough. And in this case that is a lot of extra profit for the owner of this business.
Parfigliano
@Eolirin: Police unions cant help but be full of shit because they are full of cops.
TonyG
@eclare: Even white unionized workers are uppity. If they’re Black … forget about it.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Looks like they tried to keep up with inflation in the 70s.
pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/04/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage/
JoyceH
I do like seeing a resurgent labor movement. And I think the GOP has no idea what could be coming for them. Remember that Labor Day when Paul Ryan took the opportunity to give a shout out to the ‘job creators’. Republicans don’t seem to grasp that most people don’t LIKE their boss, generally for excellent reasons.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
Oh, right, like we could form a circle…
Villago Delenda Est
@Ruckus:
This is the sort of meeting that the obscure Scotsman warned of.
Hob
I’m not a big fan of Jacobin magazine in general, but I liked this interview with Angelika Maldonado, one of the organizers who hasn’t been in the press that much since a lot of the coverage has focused on the inspirational story of Chris Smalls— I mean, Smalls was important for sure, but I’m glad to also see this kind of piece that’s more focused on practical details of getting it done. I was particularly interested to see her mention several times her mother’s experience in SEIU 1199(*) as an inspiration, because there were some earlier takes on the campaign where the fact that ALU was doing this on their own instead of affiliating with a bigger union was taken to mean that these young radicals just didn’t have any respect for the older labor movement. But, from this interview at least, it sounds like this wasn’t at all being driven by ideological arrogance— Maldonado is very up-front about having never done anything like this before, but it sounds like everyone was really paying attention and taking each other’s good advice. Big respect for all involved. I hope they’ll be getting a lot of support for the upcoming backlash, they will definitely need it, and it sounds like they understand that.
(* I was in 1021, the equivalent of 1199 in California public health jobs. I know that being in an enormous union can definitely include feeling like the organization is stodgy or doesn’t understand your particular community’s needs— even though that feeling was probably strongest in people like me who hadn’t actually made much of an effort to get involved. So I wouldn’t have been surprised if Maldonado had said things like “my mom’s experience in SEIU showed me why the big unions are not the right way to go”; but she didn’t.)
Villago Delenda Est
@JoyceH: The “job creators” are consumers. The people Paul Ryan was talking about are parasites.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
So you’ve been to at least one of those meetings……
germy
Brandon Friedman says he has a “love-hate relationship” with unions. He said
“If my workers unionize for higher wages but my competitors don’t, I’m at a disadvantage and may go out of business.”
I wouldn’t go as far as Tierney. I love Obama, but I still think it’s unfortunate too many clowns like Friedman attached themselves to his campaign and administration.
James E Powell
@Baud:
Or maybe Amazon shuts down that facility as part of a long-range reorganization that was planned for years and has nothing to do with the fact that they lost this election. Nudge nudge, wink wink.
Sure Lurkalot
@Baud:
Not necessarily a given. Many MOU’s throw shade on and diss their peers. Many capitalist bosses pit workers and/or departments and/or divisions against one another, sometimes “healthy” competition, sometimes for grins, favoritism or vindictiveness.
In most cases, workers don’t create the atmosphere they work in. Hence the phrase “toxic work environment”. They truly do exist.
germy
@Sure Lurkalot:
Capitalists respect other capitalists.
Workers do not respect other workers.
Capitalists do not respect workers.
Uncle Cosmo
FT4U!
germy
that didn’t work out too well for Sears…
James E Powell
@Villago Delenda Est:
This has to be repeated over and over and over by every Democrat who is trying to return our national economic discourse to pre-Reagan thinking.
Ken
Case in point, Sears. Though the guy who destroyed it called them libertarian principles, not mere capitalism.
germy
@James E Powell:
Biden is trying to undo decades of Reaganism. Republicans and their friends in the media are trying to put a stop to that.
I’m on team Biden.
Sure Lurkalot
@germy: I worked for a few of capitalists who not only ate their partners and peers, but set the table for them to be eaten. They may have shown respect in board meetings, trade conferences and social gatherings, but in many cases such “respect” was to reel them in. I had one boss who started to screw over his new partner the day after the deal closed. At the closing table, he was all camaraderie and shared vision.
Baud
@germy:
Biden has been strong given political constraints. My great fear is he won’t be rewarded and it’ll be taken as a sign that being pro-labor is bad politics.
Hob
@James E Powell: It’s understandable that that’s a lot of people’s first thought, since so many industries have done similar things— just close the plant, outsource to Mexico, etc. But I think it’s worth keeping in mind that it isn’t necessarily as easy for Amazon to do that as it would be for other industries. They’re reliant on having these facilities in specific areas that are close to the customers; speed of distribution is crucial to their whole thing, there’s no way to outsource that. And if they had way more of these locations than they actually needed, then the workers wouldn’t have been as overworked as they are; it’s an absurdly rich organization but it’s also heavily committed to constant expansion and to squeezing every drop of work out of everyone. I mean, a big part of the motivation for the ALU effort was that Amazon was so reluctant to scale back at all even temporarily for public health emergency reasons. Of course Amazon undoubtedly sees union-busting as a higher priority than COVID safety, but there are still practical concerns that would have to go into any nose-cutting/face-spiting decisions.
Edmund Dantes
@germy: it’s okay to admit that overall the Obama administration was a net good but still actually had some pretty horrible parts to it despite people shouting you down for it.
It’s also okay to not excuse the administration for the stuff it actually chose to do and align with that was horrible. No one is perfect
Hob
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): While it’s true that there are a lot of “we’re doomed no matter what” arguments in the air around that blog, and in the comments section that’s often a reflex response that doesn’t really make logical sense, there’s a more specific angle that the front-page authors at least were referring to: not about this specific victory being declared void, but about the undermining of labor law in general.
The NLRB under Biden has been doing something closer to its appropriate job of actually protecting labor organizing rights. That can make a big difference in the success of organizing efforts— and businesses are well aware of this; hence Amazon’s loud complaints about the NLRB helping the union too much, by which they mean limiting clearly illegal union-busting tactics somewhat and creating something a little bit closer to a level playing field.
If right-wing courts managed to hamstring the NLRB using variations on their current refrain of “it’s unconstitutional for federal agencies to do anything useful”— and the LGM bloggers have laid out pretty thoroughly how that is the strategy in many areas, despite it being legally ridiculous— then it wouldn’t really make sense to say “even if it got nullified, the union would likely win again”, because the conditions of the fight would be significantly worse. A good boxer might consistently beat a crappy boxer in every rematch, but not if the referee has been shot and replaced by the crappy boxer’s Mafia pal.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Fixed that up a little…
I think this view has already been internalized by the media, the pundits, the activists, and even the normies, to the point of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Edmund Dantes: On the other hand, always be closing. Don’t slag the brand.
Felanius Kootea
I loved Christian Small’s comment thanking Jeff Bezos for going into space because it gave the Amazon pro-union workers time to sign up their colleagues. This after Amazon had him arrested for delivering food to workers. He made me laugh out loud.
James E Powell
@germy:
You, me, and countless others. And it ain’t just the Rs and the media, we got Manchin & other “moderates” who just hate the idea that ordinary American’s lives could get better.
More & better Democrats – the old battle-cry from the Great Orange Satan – remains the only way forward.
Felanius Kootea
As long as billionaires can buy politicians on both sides of the aisle (Manchin and Sinema plus all the Republicans), pro-labor policies will be hard to enact/enforce. Given that we have at least one supreme court justice (Gorsuch) who believes that a worker should freeze to death to protect an employer’s cargo, it’s not looking good for enacting or enforcing labor laws that protect regular people.
sab
My stepson was in three different unions in his early work days. He was kind of anti- union. He thought they were a lot like homeowners associations. The active guys were kind of busybody jerks. We always told him “well, you could get more involved” but he was busy with his young life. We miss the turkey plus ham he got at every major holiday, one from the union and one from the company. His brother wishes he had their insurance. He grew up, got a non-union job and lives in a condo now. So nothing has changed except no free holiday turkey. He had a nice 401k when he was with the union.
Skepticat
Is the lawyer’s nickname Vlad? Mr. Smalls is a very impressive man; a Mr. Big, as it were.
Skepticat
@different-church-lady:
Yes!
I was brought up a management family, but most of the several companies my father built (at least those in industrial piping) were fully unionized from the start. He did gripe about minor issues from time to time, but he accepted them as the way things were if he wanted to get things done. He went into negotiations and said, “You aren’t going to get everything you want, and I’m not going to get everything I want, but let’s find something we can live with so we all can get to work.” There never was a strike or a stoppage. He sold the largest companies to a huge conglomerate when he retired, and I’ve often wondered how the companies and workers fared. I do know there were a lot of very tough union guys sobbing at his funeral.
I’ve always worked for (or founded) very small businesses, so I haven’t dealt with the issue personally, but from what I’ve seen of how huge businesses treat small people nowadays, I’m strongly pro-union.
Soprano2
@Alison Rose ???: I actually had a woman ask me if the federal minimum wage was the minimum for federal employees! The stuff people don’t know is amazing.