Amazon workers at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, New York, voted to elect reform officers in the first-ever leadership election.
“We are extremely excited to announce that every candidate on our reform caucus slate won decisively in our union’s leadership elections,” said Connor Spence, cofounder of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and former treasurer, who won the presidency. “After more than two years of fighting to reform our union to make it more democratic, transparent, and militant, we are relieved to finally be able to turn our full attention toward bringing Amazon to the table and winning an incredible contract.
“The movement to organize Amazon is still growing rapidly, and for us, our Teamster allies, and rank-and-file members, much of this is uncharted territory. We’ll be communicating in the coming days our transition plan and how we expect to execute the tremendous task ahead of us. For now, we’re grateful to our members, supporters, and movement allies for standing with us and making this win possible.”
Official tallies have not yet been released, but people who observed the vote count said the reform caucus won about 50 percent of the votes for each seat, and the ALU-Ma’at slate got about a quarter. Total turnout was tiny, roughly 250 out of 5,500 workers.
Workers said the low turnout is partly explained by their coworkers’ unfamiliarity with a mail-ballot election. Postal delays meant some workers didn’t receive their ballots in time. The instructions were also confusing, requiring multiple steps. Another snafu was a change in vendor at the last minute.
David-Desyrée Sherwood, a slate member who won a seat, said the union had failed over the past two years to properly engage members. “So there’s a large number of people still disengaged,” they said. “Our caucus did as much as we could to campaign and get the word out.” The caucus sent mass texts, emails, and campaigned outside the…
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Auteur: Luis Feliz Leon
