Amazonians United
Members of Amazonians United gathered outside Amazon’s ZYO1 delivery station on March 16, 2022, for the organization’s first-ever multistate coordinated work stoppage.
This morning marked the first-ever multistate coordinated work stoppage at the Amazon logistics empire. Across three facilities in New York and Maryland, Amazon warehouse workers walked off the job at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time. The effort was coordinated by the worker-led collective Amazonians United, a national network of Amazon workers who organize directly on the shop floor, functioning much like a union does, even without official certification.
A group of workers at Amazon’s Queens ZYO1 delivery station spoke with the Prospect over the phone as they were preparing signs for today’s walkout. “Amazon burns workers,” read one. A worker described the sign as referring to the company’s extraordinary turnover rate. “I think it’s somewhere like 150 percent [per year].”
The collective’s efforts predate last year’s failed union drive in Bessemer, Alabama. Since its inception, across the country, Amazonians United has extracted concessions from the company in the form of millions of dollars in benefits for warehouse workers through paid time off for part-time workers and illegally denied paid sick leave for workers in Skokie, Illinois.
Last December, in the aftermath of the deadly tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois, that left six dead, Amazonians United in six delivery stations along the East Coast circulated a petition with seven demands. The company so far has granted some. It has extended the temporary allowance for phones on the work floor, established a severe-weather hotline and policy where if a shift is canceled, workers still get paid, and granted workers the ability to file for an appeal process if they’re fired.
But according to workers at ZYO1, the company refuses to acknowledge the petition’s role and has completely ignored other demands for increased pay and a return to longer 20-minute breaks. A worker from the ZYO1 delivery station told the Prospect, “[Amazon] is playing a game of conceding to some things, but won’t explain why.”
Instead, management has insisted the concessions were merely coincidental, it seems. The workers from ZYO1 who spoke with the Prospect said management told them the meager improvements “had nothing to do with your petition. We had been considering these things for months.”
In other cases, management at ZYO1 has apparently punished the workers. The group from ZYO1 recalled to the Prospect how following the December petition, the company removed snacks from a locker in the break room, and incrementally, management reintroduced the snacks by handing them out one by one to workers. Effectively, “brainwashing,” as one worker put it, to make them more obedient, in the same way one would offer a treat to a pet. The workers from ZYO1 joked that since they already had a giant picture of their manager’s face for the walkout, they should make a sign using it that would read, “We don’t want snacks. We want a raise.”
However, the main issue propelling the walkout is Amazonians United’s insistence on a permanent $3-per-hour raise, which the company has implemented at some facilities. “It’s about pay for everybody,” another worker told the Prospect. “We’ve made it clear the past few months.” Workers at ZYO1 start at $16.25 an hour.
Tensions run high in the facility. I asked the workers how they felt about the staged walkout. Brendan Radtke, a member of Amazonians United at ZYO1, told the Prospect, “Even if we are nervous [walking off] we’re going to show them what we’re worth. We work from 1:00 a.m. to noon.” Amazonians United’s organizing model is simple: It’s about organizing workers at the point of production. Radtke told the Prospect, “We have the power on the floor because that’s where the money is made.”
Since formal union recognition battles can drag on for months, if not years, Amazonians United’s focus on organizing without an official entity in place challenges the logistics giant’s anti-union tactics, which it deployed in full force last year in Alabama. But even the outsized coverage of last year’s failed union drive hasn’t deterred the workers at ZYO1. “We’re not in The New York Times, but [we’re] in the warehouses fighting for what people need that day,” insisted Radtke.
An Amazon spokesperson provided the following statement in response to a request for comment: “We’re proud to offer industry leading pay, competitive benefits, and the opportunity for all to grow within the company. While there are many established ways of ensuring we hear the opinions of our employees inside our business, we also respect the right for some to make their opinions known externally.”
A worker named Ellie Pfeffer told the Prospect, “What we’re doing is showing our power is not based on just some union vote. They should be afraid to not pay us more.” The workers at ZYO1 told the Prospect that it’s clear Amazon knows how to fight a union election and the company’s past actions against unionization drives and broader efforts demonstrate the company is willing to do whatever it can to crush collective action. “[Amazon] has no idea what to do about workers taking power for themselves,” Pfeffer continued. “This is why we’re walking out.”
This article has been updated to include Amazon's response.
