Amazon union faces division, delay a year after historic victory
The upstart union has faced difficulties after a watershed election. Encircled by camera-wielding supporters and journalists, Chris Smalls popped a bottle of champagne one year ago today to celebrate a watershed election that established the first-ever U.S. union at Amazon -- but the celebratory times for the union wouldn't last. Smalls, a former warehouse worker at the company's facility in Staten Island, New York, and the president of the Amazon Labor Union, or ALU, launched the campaign alongside his co-workers, raising money on GoFundMe as they sought improved pay, benefits and working conditions at the facility. The independent union overcame well-resourced opposition from the company and helped propel a surge of labor organizing across the country, some experts said. However, the ALU encountered difficulties almost immediately. In the months following the victory , labor campaigns were defeated overwhelmingly in elections at two other Amazon warehouses in New York. Meanw...