Amazon’s Staten Island Union Warehouse is an Anomaly

We all know that one Amazon warehouse voted to go union in Staten Island, New York last year. Have you heard about the other warehouses where union organizing never got off the ground?

After the Staten Island win, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) announced it would organize workers in Kentucky. This was ALU’s first attempt to organize outside of New York, and it chose to start in the South.

When will unions learn they cannot organize Southern workers?

In September 2021, a Kentucky Amazon warehouse employee, Littrell, launched an informal committee to address health and safety issues at his warehouse.

This occurred at the same time the Staten Island employees (and others) were organizing their unions. Littrell’s committee was comprised of a few dozen employees.

In April 2022, the Staten Island warehouse went union. The ALU offered unlimited support to Littrell’s efforts in Kentucky. Per Littrell, “they promised us whatever we would need to get the organizing drive done.”

Littrell eagerly accepted the ALU’s offer. In doing so, he turned down offers from the Teamsters and IAM. Neither of those unions had successfully organized any Amazon warehouses.

In August 2022, Amazon fired Littrell. This happens frequently and can have nothing to do with retaliation. Union organizers often violate company policy. Sometimes it is to become a martyr for their cause, other times they are misled into thinking they are invincible.

After Littrell’s termination, the ALU pulled out resources from the Kentucky organizing campaign and abandoned its efforts.

Poof. No Littrell. No ALU. No union organizing drive. No union vote.

It has been nearly a year since the Staten Island win. The ALU has failed to organize any other Amazon warehouse. It has attempted to organize others across the country – including a current drive in California – but so far the ALU has not been able to gain any traction at any other facility.

Yet, based on media coverage, Amazon seems to be at risk of having several warehouses go union. Based on facts, though, Staten Island may be its only warehouse to ever vote for union representation.

What do you think – will the ALU successfully organize other warehouses or was the Staten Island warehouse an anomaly?