It takes a village to stand up to corporate giant Amazon and inhumane labor practices. Enter: Amazonians United.

Amid all the media attention directed recently at Amazon Labor Union and the successful unionization of a warehouse in Staten Island, we shouldn’t sleep on the hard work of Amazonians United. Via Vice:

[T]he Amazon Labor Union is not the first worker-led group to organize an Amazon warehouse and challenge the company’s authority. Independent groups such as Amazonians United, which has chapters in New York City, Chicago, and Sacramento, and the Awood Center in Minnesota, have popped up around the country over the past two years.

In fact, Amazonians United arguably laid the necessary groundwork in recent years for the organizing success enjoyed by ALU. The group is a confederation of organizing workers from different warehouses around the world. Their current banner sports the logos of Amazonians United Chicago, Amazonians United Sacramento, Amazonians United New York, and Amazon Workers International. The circle of involvement, however, extends much further. For example, the Guardian reported on the work of Amazonians United in North Carolina:

In Garner, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh, workers are pushing to organize a union at the Amazon warehouse RDU1, a 700,000 sq ft facility with four floors.

Through the grassroots organization Cause, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, workers are demanding a $5 an hour pay increase; a return to digital time clocks rather than physical ones, where workers are forced to wait in long lines to punch in and out; longer breaks; a revision to Amazon’s time-off options; the formation of a worker committee to address grievances and appeals; and mental health resources for workers.

Every warehouse and worker is different, but what draws them to organize are often familiar issues seen at warehouses around the country and world: the inhuman treatment of labor. Workers from Amazonians United Chicago tell their story of their formation back in 2019:

DCH1 is in Pilsen on the south side of Chicago, at 28th and Western. Hundreds of mostly Black and Latino workers from across Chicagoland come here to work. There’s no union or nonprofit backing us up, it’s just us workers, full of dignity, trying to make ends meet.

Almost a year ago, in the summer of 2019, a small crew of us got fed up with Amazon’s bullshit and met up outside of work because we felt we had to do something. Amazon wasn’t providing us with regular, clean access to water. Either there was no water available, there were no cups, the water fountain didn’t work, or the water was dirty. We had individually approached managers about this multiple times and they would say “we’re fixing the situation” but they never did. So we decided to start a petition for our coworkers to sign demanding clean water.

Coworkers were a little nervous about signing the petition. But at the end of the day, a few of us managed to get about 150 coworkers to sign the water petition. People signed because we weren’t asking for something crazy, we were just asking for a basic human necessity. Within a few weeks of our initial meeting we turned the petition in during our daily stand-up meeting at the beginning of our shift. We had one coworkers raise their hand and say “I have a safety tip, in fact 150 of us have a safety tip here on this petition, we need water!” then other coworkers spoke up too. The manager got all nervous, just kept repeating “I’ll take care of it right away” and within an hour the manager had run to the nearest grocery store and gotten enough cases of bottled water for everyone. For the next months Amazon had pallets of bottled water available to us. Within a few weeks, management had water lines and water stations installed throughout the facility.

From this we learned that we get the changes we need by getting organized and taking action together. Since there was still plenty of bullshit to address, we met up again and after some brainstorming decided to name ourselves DCH1 Amazonians United.

The workers don’t go it alone. With support and inspiration from organizing teams at other warehouses, Amazonians United Chicago launched a petition and other actions to stand up for their labor rights.

But it wasn’t until December, when we had heard about Amazonians United Sacramento doing a petition for [paid time off] and later walking out to demand PTO, that we were inspired to follow their lead and get our organizing efforts on their level.

So in January of 2020, DCH1 Amazonians United members got together to come up with a plan. We were excited to continue the momentum from Amazonians United Sacramento, so we started our own petition for PTO and gathered signatures during break and before/after shifts at DCH1.

The general demands that Amazonians United advocate for include the following: 

1. We demand a clear inclement weather policy that takes workers into account.

2. Our phones stay with us for emergencies.

3. We deserve a permanent $3/hr raise.

4. Reinstate extended breaks.

5. End understaffing and keep the pace of work at a safe and sustainable level.

6. Give delivery stations a fair appeals process.

7. More PTO.

Amazonians United helped the labor movement grow within Amazon by establishing these demands. Simply voicing them helps expand the political imagination for what is possible for worker’s rights and following up these demands with actions like walkouts, petitions, and more helps turn these demands into realities.

What is the future of Amazonians United?

Is it a vanguard of union activity at corporate giant, giving way to a formal and legally-recognized union when the time is right? Is it a permanent worker’s association that operates independently and alongside formal union structures, aligned in the shared pursuit of labor rights? Or something else altogether? In practical terms, Amazonians United may be all of the above all at once. What the future, Amazon workers and advocates of labor rights should involve themselves in helping along the common cause.

Say hi to Amazonians United Chicago on Twitter.

Say hi to North Carolina Amazonians United on Twitter.

Visit Amazonians United on the web.

Say hi to Amazon Workers International on Twitter.