For the Union Makes Us Strong
A spectre is haunting America—the spectre of unionization!
After a four-year-long battle with Amazon, Chris Smalls has successfully unionized the company’s Staten Island warehouse. On top of this, Smalls has become the president of the Amazon Labor Union.
This victory comes behind the thirteen corporate Starbucks locations that have voted to unionize in the past year. It’s been inspiring to see how these workplaces are successfully changing direction after years of their companies’ lobbying against these sorts of decisions.
Amazon is known for holding outright meetings to try to convince the workers that unionizing is bad for them. Starbucks has its own website dedicated to spreading anti-union propaganda. Tesla has been proven to violate US labor laws relating to unionizing with 12 different actions. Elon Musk has illegally tried to persuade his employees to vote against unionizing on Twitter.
Despite these disgusting corporate actions, we have seen how the workers at each of these companies still want to unionize. They want to be able to have a say in the companies’ decisions regarding their safety and livelihoods. Hopefully, we will see more working-class victories against corporations known for their unfair labour practices. Especially since we now know that it’s not only possible, but also achievable, to stand up to giants such as Amazon and Starbucks. All it takes is effort.
Solidarity Forever!
Cover Photo by 20th Century Fox. Edited by Caitlin Andrews.