There’s only one time in American history to look to if we’re seeking a rapid and lasting revitalization of unions, and that’s the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the mid-1930s. There were many things that made that particular moment successful, but one of the key ones was that they took aim at the commanding heights of the economy. The CIO leaders understood that labor would not have a seat at the political table until General Motors (GM), Ford, General Electric, US Steel, and the like were organized. These were the biggest employers of the day, and they set the labor standards. Their organization in the 1930s amounted to the closest thing to a working-class revolution we have seen in this country. And the breakthrough moment came with cracking the anti-union shell of GM in the winter of 1937.
If we want to see a similar labor upsurge today, then organized labor must have its sights set on one crucial target: Amazon. Every era has an iconic labor struggle that is both situated in a leading industry of its day and representative of the broader fortunes of labor. In the twenty-first century, that struggle is with Amazon.
In two or three years, unless there are major operational hiccups, Amazon is set to be the first company in history to record $1 trillion of revenue annually. It is today simultaneously the second largest retailer by revenue, the largest private parcel company by volume, and the largest cloud computing company by revenue. It has single-handedly reshaped the logistics, transportation, and retail sectors, and it is aiming to do the same for grocery, health care, and pharmacy.
It is also a direct threat to the largest union contract in the country. In 2023, the Teamsters won significant gains on that contract with United Parcel Service (UPS), which covered 330,000 workers. In the same year, Amazon leapfrogged UPS in terms of total package volume, and since then UPS has been floundering, announcing layoffs of almost
Auteur: Benjamin Y. Fong
