The leader of Amazon’s sole successful unionization effort said on Monday that American workers can’t rely on the Democratic Party to secure better pay and conditions.&nb…
  • @return2ozma@lemmy.worldOP
    17•9 months ago

    “I met Joe Biden,” Smalls said, referring to the 2022 meeting where the president referred to him as “my kind of trouble.”

    Smalls was less enthusiastic. “I met [Biden], I met a lot of these politicians that we thought would be looking out for the working class. And y’all — there ain’t no cavalry coming. I met with Joe Biden for an hour, and I don’t remember the conversation — it was that bad. When I left the White House, I felt empty.”

    Six months after that meeting, Amazon secured an $8 billion loan from the federal government. “And that just told me right there that, once again, if we don’t organize, nothing’s going to be given to us. Nobody’s going to be held accountable,” Smalls said.

    “So it’s a must. It’s our duty. Because we’re at a point of no return. We have to organize ourselves. Because no amount of money in the world can stop the power of people when we come together.”

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    4•9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    The leader of Amazon’s sole successful unionization effort said on Monday that American workers can’t rely on the Democratic Party to secure better pay and conditions.

    The union leader delivered his remarks the week after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reclaimed his title from Elon Musk as the world’s richest man.

    Smalls rocketed to national prominence in April 2021, when the union effort he helped lead organized a Staten Island Amazon warehouse — where he charged bosses had attempted to cover up COVID-19 cases.

    Seth Goldstein, an attorney who represents both the ALU and the labor group Trader Joe’s United, told the AP that the companies’ actions’ were  “very frightening.”

    In late 2022, several members of the ALU’s executive board stepped down in protest over what they portrayed as Smalls’ disorganized and authoritarian leadership style.

    The ALU inner circle, dissident members wrote in a July lawsuit, “refuse to hold membership meetings, they have unilaterally ‘amended’ the constitution to keep themselves in power indefinitely, they have threatened their opponents, most of whom made up the core group which won the Amazon election in the first place, and, most importantly, they refuse all efforts to have a fair, democratic, election.”

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