 That right there was the moment when Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island found out that they won and They successfully voted to form a union and how could you not be happy for them? This is game-changing as others have pointed out This is essentially David beating Goliath the fact that they pulled this off. I Just don't know what to say about it Now all of this was possible because of one man one Amazon warehouse worker that decided to blow the whistle on the company's terrible practices during COVID. He single-handedly organized Amazon and Made this happen as journalist Jody Cantor writes Chris Smalls fired from Amazon almost two years ago to the day just popped Champagne outside the NLRB offices where he and his peers won one of the greatest labor victories in a generation To the first Amazon union in history He said now from run this we go to Jake Johnson of common dreams who explains According to an initial tally released by the National Labor Relations Board There were two thousand six hundred fifty four votes in favor of recognizing a union and 2100 31 against the number of disputed ballots 67 is not nearly enough to change the outcome the historic unionization drive at the JFK Eight fulfillment Center was spearheaded by the Amazon Labor Union a worker led group not affiliated with any established union Christian Smalls the president of ALU was fired by Amazon in 2020 After he led a protest against the company's poor workplace safety standards in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic when COVID-19 came into play And Amazon failed us Smalls said during a press conference after the union victory was announced We want to thank Jeff Bezos for going to space because when he was up there We were signing people up love that quote Amazon which spent 4.3 million on anti-union consultants in 2021 alone worked hard to crush the unionization after forcing employees to attend hundreds of captive audience meetings and Threatening workers with pay cuts and other potential consequences But the company's union-busting campaign wasn't enough to overcome the upstart revolt led by ALU Which was founded just months ago. I don't know what to even say about this This is such great news to start the weekend with or the end of the week with You know, this was done by an organization as the article pointed out that was formed months ago and One man did this Chris Smalls So he should be very proud and everyone else should take note This is how it's done if he did this then certainly you can do the same thing You know following his footsteps Potentially organize your workplace and even knowing what you're up against even knowing the dirty tactics that this company or your company will inevitably pull You can still beat them Chris Smalls showed everyone what was possible and what's funny is Amazon tried to fight against this union by Making Chris Smalls the face of this effort as if he wasn't already the face But they thought that that was a bad thing and he explains this himself on Twitter Amazon wanted to make me the face of the whole unionizing efforts against them. Well, there you go Jeff Bezos David Zapolsky Congratulations Amazon labor we worked had fun and made history hashtag ALU Welcome the first union in America for Amazon. God damn. This is good news. This is such good news This is incredible and this is a game changer specifically because usually all it takes is the first domino to fall and then the rest Will follow this could single-handedly catalyze a company why you unionization effort That's what we saw with the Starbucks union right one successful unionization effort led to Dozens of unionization efforts across the country. So this is all that it took and Now Amazon knows and Amazon is pissed So they put out an unhinged statement, which is just honestly comical So they write we're disappointed with the outcome of the election in Staten Island Because we believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees. Oh bullshit We're evaluating our options including filing objections based on the inappropriate and undue influence by the NLRB That we and others including the National Retail Federation and US Chamber of Commerce witnessed in this election Now I love how the first unionization effort in Bessemer, Alabama. I believe there's a revote coming soon I don't know what the data is because Amazon they themselves They exerted undue influence over the process, which was inappropriate But now they're just basically saying the same thing about the NLRB. No you undue influence Copen seed that was on copen seed get fucked. This is so great Um, and I don't know how to even process this information because usually when it comes to worker rights in America It's defeat after defeat at least at the national level when it comes to Congress, right? You know the minimum wage increase didn't get passed. There's less protections because Regulations are getting stripped but at this grassroots level. This is actually an avenue where we can feel hopeful. This is Just we haven't seen this sort of labor movement in Decades and this is truly a reason to be happy because workers aren't making it happen workers for the first time in decades Are actually standing up in unison and they're saying We're not going to take this anymore. We're fed up with the bullshit We're not going to put up with the abuse. We're forming a union and even though These companies do everything to break up these unions to stop the efforts to you know, threaten and intimidate Workers now know why a union is necessary. So this is just great news I don't have much else to say. I just wanted to share the good news with you Um, certainly something that I am looking forward to seeing more of again Kudos to Chris Smalls what he pulled off here shows that this is possible. It seemed Impossible, but he proved to everyone that it's possible He is a national hero and absolutely following his footsteps if you want to Change not just your workplace, but the country for the better if every single company in America saw this if more people Let efforts to unionize organize their workplace Imagine where we'd be in this country. So this is really cause for hope y'all and inject this straight into my veins because this is Incredible news