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On Sunday, April 24, the independent Amazon Labor Union held a rally outside the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, New York, where, just one month ago, workers shocked the world by becoming the first Amazon workforce in the US to successfully vote to unionize. With supporters from organized labor and the surrounding community showing up in full force, along with high-profile appearances from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, worker-organizers with the ALU showed their support for their coworkers at the LDJ5 sorting center, another facility in the same complex that is voting in their own union election this week. If LDJ5 becomes the second Amazon facility to unionize, it will prove that what happened at JFK8 was not a fluke, but the beginning of a historic movement to unionize the second largest private employer in the US and one of the most powerful corporations in the world.

In this special episode of Working People, we put together a compilation of speeches from the rally along with interviews TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez conducted on the ground with Amazon workers and other special guests. Speakers/interviewees include: Christian Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union; Derrick Palmer, vice president of organizing for the Amazon Labor Union; Jordan Flowers, cofounder of the Congress of Essential Workers and the Amazon Labor Union; Senator Bernie Sanders; Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Karen Ponce, interim secretary of the Amazon Labor Union; Julian Mitchell-Israel, LDJ5 Amazon worker, field organizer for the Amazon Labor Union; Maddie Wesley, LDJ5 Amazon worker, treasurer of the Amazon Labor Union; Kshama Sawant, (socialist) Seattle City Council Member; Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO; Charles Jenkins, elected officer of the Transport Worker Union Local 100 and president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) NY Chapter; Brittany Ramos DeBarros, candidate for Congress in New York’s 11th District; Luis Feliz Leon, staff writer and organizer for Labor Notes; Michelle Valentin Nieves, worker-organizer with the Amazon Labor Union.

Additional links/info below…

Amazon Labor Union website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and InstagramThe Amazon Labor Union Solidarity FundChris Smalls’ Twitter pageDerrick Palmer’s Twitter pageJordan Flowers’ Twitter pageThe Congress of Essential Workers website and Twitter pageJulian Mitchell-Israel’s Twitter pageKshama Sawant’s Twitter pageSara Nelson’s Twitter pageThe Coalition of Black Trade Unionists’ website and Twitter pageBrittany Ramos DeBarros’s Twitter pageLuis Feliz Leon’s Labor Notes author page and Twitter pageMichelle Valentin Nieves’s Twitter pageBernie Sanders’s Twitter pageAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter pageLuis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes, “Amazon Workers on Staten Island Clinch a Historic Victory“Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes, “‘They’re Playing Really Dirty’: Amazon Lashes Back in Staten Island Warehouses“Lauren Kaori Gurley, Motherboard, “Amazon Cracks Down on Organizing After Historic Union Win“Lauren Kaori Gurley, Motherboard, “Amazon Labor Union Is Inspiring Amazon Workers Around the Country to Unionize“Alex N. Press, Jacobin, “The Class War Is Raging at Amazon’s Staten Island Complex“Christian Smalls, Angelika Maldonado, Michelle Valentin Nieves, Jacobin, “The Workers Behind Amazon’s Historic First Union Explain How They Did It“

Permanent links below…

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Working People

Working People is a podcast about working-class lives in the 21st century. In every episode, you’ll hear interviews with workers from all walks of life. Working People aims to share and celebrate the diverse stories of working-class people, to remind ourselves that our stories matter, and to build a sense of shared struggle and solidarity between workers around the world.

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Transcript

The transcript of this interview will be made available as soon as possible.