'Just the beginning': Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez rally with Amazon union workers

Two US lawmakers have joined a rally by members of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and other warehouse workers for the online retail giant as the union prepares for a second vote to unionize at another Amazon distribution center.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) of New York took part in the rally on Staten Island a day before the union is set to begin voting on Monday at a distribution center known as LDJ5, where nearly 1,500 employees work.

“What this struggle is about, it’s not just Amazon Staten Island. This is the struggle that is taking place all across this country. Working people are sick and tired of falling further and further behind while billionaires like [Amazon founder Jeff] Bezos become much richer,” Sanders said while addressing a crowd of more than 300 people.

Sanders’ remarks came as the once-longshot union organizers are hoping to repeat their success earlier this month when they pulled off a history-making upset at the JFK8 Amazon warehouse across the street from LDJ5, becoming the first Amazon union in the country in face of fierce resistance from a powerful online retailer, the New York-based The City news outlet reported Monday.

After initially drawing minimal support from progressive stakeholders, who remained largely silent during the unionization drive, the prevailing theme for ALU leaders going forward is solidarity.

Calling the rally “Solidarity Sunday,” ALU’s President Chris Smalls said that presenting a unified front is “very important” for boosting worker morale ahead of the vote, according to the report.

“You have to have politician support. We have to have the community supporting us and today was a good example and a good start to that leading up to the election that takes place tomorrow,” he further underlined.

“So we couldn’t have asked for anything better than to have Bernie and AOC show up today.”

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But organizing workers at LDJ5 comes with its own set of challenges, and Amazon has no plans on relenting against the union, having already filed objections to the first vote claiming that the National Labor Relations Board is giving the ALU preferential treatment.

AOC: ‘NYC is a Union Town’

Meanwhile, ALU is asking Amazon to recognize the union and negotiate a contract, which the ALU leadership regards as the “real fight.”

“First and foremost, Jeff Bezos, Amazon, everybody, we got to recognize the fact that they did this thing and won a union election fair and square right here in New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the ALU rally on Sunday.  “And now what we need to do next is make sure we support them.”

“All of us as a city need to remember that New York City is a union town. Here in New York, you gotta treat our people right. If you can go to space, you can give our people a bathroom break,” she added, referring to Bezos’ “astronaut” tourism.

‘Lies and Rumors’

Amazon has been shutting down the LDJ5 facility for an hour each shift to pull workers into so-called captive audience meetings staged by management to discuss the pitfalls of unionizing, said Maddie Wesley, an LDJ5 worker since August 2021 and the treasurer of the ALU.

The mood inside the distribution center has been “very intense” in recent weeks, Wesley insisted.

“It’s a smaller facility, so we thought that would actually make it easier. But what’s made it difficult is that rumors spread quicker in a smaller facility, and so Amazon’s method of spreading lies and rumors has been somewhat effective because everyone kind of knows each other in the building,” Wesley said.

Among those rumors is that ALU leaders bought lavish cars with the money the union raised so far — almost $323,000 through GoFundMe, up from the roughly $100,000 they received prior to the first vote at JFK8.

Wesley said she’s heard rumors that she purchased a Mercedes Benz and that Smalls bought himself a Lamborghini.

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