Amazon JFK8 Workers Vote to Form Company’s First U.S. Union in Historic Victory

On April 1, 2022, workers at Amazon’s massive JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island voted 2,654 to 2,131 to form the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), creating the first unionized Amazon facility in the United States and delivering one of the most stunning labor victories in a generation. The independent, worker-led union—founded by Christian Smalls after Amazon fired him in March 2020 for organizing a COVID safety protest—defeated Amazon’s multi-million dollar anti-union campaign through relentless grassroots organizing, community solidarity, and workers’ determination to win dignity and respect on the job. The victory shocked labor experts who had believed Amazon was too powerful and too sophisticated in its union-busting tactics to be successfully organized, and it demonstrated that even the most virulently anti-union corporations could be beaten when workers organized effectively. The New York Times called it “one of the biggest victories for organized labor in a generation,” while Amazon immediately vowed to challenge the results and refuse to negotiate with the union.

The Vote Count and Stunning Victory

The National Labor Relations Board conducted the ballot count on March 31 and April 1, 2022, at its Brooklyn office, with hundreds of Amazon workers, union organizers, labor advocates, and media watching the proceedings. The final tally:

• For union (ALU): 2,654 votes (55.2%)
• Against union: 2,131 votes (44.3%)
• Challenged ballots: 67 (not enough to affect outcome)
• Eligible voters: Approximately 8,325

The 523-vote margin represented a decisive victory that required no resolution of challenged ballots. With approximately 58% turnout, the vote demonstrated significant worker engagement in the election despite Amazon’s attempts to discourage participation.

When the final count was announced, the room erupted in celebration. Christian Smalls, who had been fired by Amazon nearly exactly two years earlier, pumped his fists and embraced supporters. Workers who had organized the campaign wept with joy and relief. Labor advocates who had gathered to witness the count cheered a victory many had thought impossible.

Christian Smalls and the Amazon Labor Union

The ALU victory was inseparable from Christian Smalls’s remarkable journey from fired Amazon worker to union president:

March 30, 2020: Amazon fired Smalls, a management assistant at JFK8, hours after he organized a walkout protesting inadequate COVID-19 safety measures. Leaked memos revealed Amazon executives, in a meeting including CEO Jeff Bezos, had discussed making Smalls “the face of the entire union/organizing movement” and characterized him as “not smart or articulate”—racist language that generated national outrage.

Building the ALU: Rather than seeking employment elsewhere, Smalls dedicated himself to unionizing JFK8. He founded the Amazon Labor Union as an independent, worker-led union rather than affiliating with established labor organizations like the Teamsters or SEIU. This independence would prove crucial—workers trusted the ALU as authentically representing them rather than as outside organizers with their own agendas.

Grassroots Organizing: For nearly two years, Smalls and a small team of organizers stood at the bus stop outside JFK8, talking to workers during shift changes. They distributed food, marijuana, and pro-union literature. They built relationships and trust slowly, conversation by conversation, shift by shift. They lived in a small apartment together, surviving on GoFundMe donations that raised approximately $120,000—a minuscule amount compared to Amazon’s anti-union spending but enough to sustain their efforts.

Community Support: The ALU built deep connections with Staten Island’s community, including local businesses, churches, and community organizations. This support network provided resources and legitimacy that countered Amazon’s narrative that the union was comprised of outside agitators.

Amazon’s Multi-Million Dollar Anti-Union Campaign

Amazon deployed its full union-busting playbook against the JFK8 organizing drive:

Consultant Spending: Amazon hired Morgan Lewis and other elite union-avoidance firms, spending an estimated $4.3 million on anti-union consultants in 2021 alone (disclosed in federal labor filings). This spending dwarfed the ALU’s grassroots fundraising by a factor of more than 35 to 1.

Captive-Audience Meetings: Amazon held mandatory anti-union meetings where workers were required to listen to management’s anti-union presentations during their paid shifts. Workers reported these meetings occurred frequently in the weeks before the election.

Anti-Union Messaging: Amazon saturated the workplace with anti-union propaganda:

• Posted signs throughout the facility warning about union dues and questioning what the union could deliver
• Sent text messages and emails to workers discouraging union support
• Distributed flyers and literature making claims about union limitations
• Created websites with anti-union messaging

Manager Pressure: Supervisors were instructed to discuss the election with workers and discourage union support. Workers reported being pulled into one-on-one conversations where managers expressed concern about unionization.

Wage Increase Timing: Amazon announced wage increases for workers shortly before the election—a common union-busting tactic designed to suggest the company was already responsive to worker concerns without need for a union.

Why Did ALU Succeed Where Others Failed?

The JFK8 victory was remarkable because it succeeded where the well-funded Bessemer, Alabama campaign had failed just one year earlier. Several factors contributed to the ALU’s success:

1. Worker-Led and Independent The ALU was founded and led by JFK8 workers themselves rather than by outside union organizers. Christian Smalls and other leaders had worked at the facility and shared workers’ experiences. This authenticity gave the ALU credibility that outside unions struggled to achieve.

2. Patient, Relentless Organizing Smalls and his team spent nearly two years building relationships with workers, standing at the bus stop in all weather, earning trust through consistent presence and genuine engagement. This patient organizing contrasted with faster-paced campaigns that couldn’t build the same depth of worker support.

3. COVID Context and Amazon’s Hypocrisy Smalls’s firing for organizing a COVID safety protest—and the leaked racist memo about him—generated enormous sympathy and demonstrated Amazon’s willingness to retaliate against workers advocating for safety. Many workers saw Amazon’s subsequent anti-union campaign as hypocritical given the company’s treatment of Smalls.

4. Diverse, Multinational Workforce JFK8’s workforce was incredibly diverse, with workers speaking multiple languages and coming from immigrant communities. The ALU built organizing strategies that crossed language and cultural barriers, with organizers speaking workers’ languages and understanding their specific concerns.

5. Community Support and National Attention The ALU cultivated strong support from Staten Island’s community and attracted national attention from labor advocates, progressive politicians, and media. This support provided resources, legitimacy, and public pressure on Amazon that the company couldn’t easily counter.

6. Amazon’s Overreach Amazon’s aggressive anti-union campaign may have backfired with some workers who resented the company’s heavy-handed tactics, constant messaging, and apparent desperation to prevent unionization. The intensity of Amazon’s opposition may have validated workers’ belief that the company feared a union because workers had real power collectively.

7. Specific Grievances JFK8 workers had concrete grievances that motivated organizing:

• Grueling productivity quotas tracked by electronic monitoring
• High injury rates from physically demanding work
• Insufficient bathroom breaks, with workers reporting urinating in bottles
• Disrespectful treatment by managers
• Inadequate pay relative to New York City’s high cost of living
• COVID safety concerns that persisted long after the pandemic’s early months

Labor Movement’s Reaction: Jubilation and Hope

The ALU victory electrified the labor movement:

Labor Leaders: AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler stated: “This victory shows that when working people come together, they have the power to improve their lives and communities. Amazon workers in Staten Island have made history by organizing the first union at Amazon in the United States despite an aggressive anti-union campaign.”

Progressive Politicians: Senator Bernie Sanders congratulated the workers: “I want to congratulate Christian Smalls and all Amazon workers on Staten Island for their historic victory in forming Amazon’s first union. Amazon, worth $1.7 trillion, is owned by Jeff Bezos, the second wealthiest person in America. Workers took him on—and won.”

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose district includes parts of New York City, celebrated the victory and highlighted how Amazon’s attempt to make Smalls “the face of the union movement” had backfired spectacularly—he had indeed become that face, but as a triumphant leader rather than a discredited figure.

Labor Organizers: The victory provided hope to organizers working on difficult campaigns across industries. It demonstrated that sophisticated corporate union-busting could be defeated through grassroots worker organizing, community solidarity, and persistence.

Media Coverage: Major news outlets recognized the historic significance, with headlines like “One of the Biggest Victories for Organized Labor in a Generation” (New York Times) and extensive coverage analyzing how workers had beaten Amazon against overwhelming odds.

Amazon’s Response: Immediate Challenge and Refusal to Recognize

Amazon issued a statement that mixed disappointment with determination to challenge the result: “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. 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 U.S. Chamber of Commerce) witnessed in this election.”

Amazon’s response revealed its strategy:

Refusal to Recognize: Despite the clear vote outcome, Amazon would not recognize the union or begin negotiations, instead filing objections with the NLRB alleging election irregularities.

Blaming the NLRB: Amazon claimed the NLRB had shown “inappropriate and undue influence” in favor of the union—a claim labor experts viewed as absurd given that the NLRB’s role is to oversee fair elections, not to favor either side.

Appeals and Delays: Amazon would file 25 objections to the election, beginning a lengthy appeals process that would delay union recognition and contract negotiations for over a year.

Signaling Continued Opposition: Amazon made clear it would not accept the workers’ democratic choice but would instead deploy every legal strategy to avoid recognizing the union or bargaining in good faith.

Historical Significance: Breaking Amazon’s Perfect Record

The JFK8 victory shattered Amazon’s perfect record of defeating every union organizing attempt in its 27-year history. Amazon had successfully prevented unionization at hundreds of facilities through aggressive anti-union tactics, and the company’s success had made it seem nearly invincible.

Inspiring Other Organizing: Almost immediately, workers at other Amazon facilities began exploring unionization, inspired by the JFK8 victory. The ALU itself sought to replicate its success at nearby facilities.

Challenging Tech Industry Anti-Union Culture: The victory challenged the broader tech industry’s anti-union culture, where companies portrayed unions as incompatible with innovation and worker autonomy. Amazon workers had decisively rejected this narrative.

Demonstrating Power of Worker Organizing: The victory showed that even workers at one of the world’s most powerful corporations could organize successfully when they built authentic worker leadership, maintained persistence, and cultivated community support.

Ironic Fulfillment of Amazon’s Strategy

In a deeply satisfying irony, Amazon’s 2020 strategy to make Christian Smalls “the face of the entire union/organizing movement” had succeeded—just not in the way Amazon intended. Smalls had indeed become a prominent face of union organizing, but as an inspiring leader who had beaten Amazon rather than as a discredited figure who undermined worker organizing.

The racist language Amazon executives used to describe Smalls—“not smart or articulate”—was thoroughly disproven by his sophisticated organizing strategy, his articulate media appearances, and his successful leadership of a complex organizing campaign. The leaked memo had transformed Smalls from a fired worker into a national labor figure, providing him with a platform and credibility that aided the organizing effort.

What Came Next: The Fight for a Contract

The April 1 victory was only the beginning of a longer struggle. Amazon would:

• File 25 objections to the election, delaying NLRB certification for months
• Refuse to recognize the union or negotiate even after objections were dismissed
• Continue anti-union efforts at the facility to undermine worker support
• Appeal the NLRB’s certification through multiple levels of review

The ALU would face new challenges:

• Internal divisions about strategy and leadership
• Difficulty maintaining worker engagement during Amazon’s delay tactics
• Limited resources for sustaining organizing and preparing for contract negotiations
• Pressure to deliver concrete improvements to justify workers’ trust

As of early 2023, Amazon still had not negotiated with the union despite the clear election result, demonstrating that winning an election was only the first step in a long fight for a contract that would actually improve workers’ conditions.

Legacy: A Historic Victory in a Broader Struggle

The JFK8 victory represented one of the most significant labor organizing wins in decades, comparable to the United Auto Workers’ successful organizing of auto plants in the 1930s. It demonstrated that:

• Corporate power is not absolute—workers organizing collectively can defeat even the wealthiest corporations
• Worker-led, independent unions can succeed where traditional organizing models struggle
• Grassroots organizing with limited resources can overcome multi-million dollar corporate union-busting
• Persistence matters—Smalls and the ALU spent two years building toward victory
• Community solidarity amplifies worker power
• Corporate union-busting tactics, however sophisticated, cannot defeat workers determined to organize for dignity and respect

The victory provided hope to millions of workers in precarious, low-wage jobs that they too could organize successfully despite facing powerful employers determined to prevent unionization. It revitalized the labor movement and demonstrated the potential for worker organizing in the 21st century economy.