STATEN ISLAND: Amazon Warehouse Workers In New York Made History Voting For A Union

NEW YORK CITY: An executive at Amazon suggested undercutting Christian Smalls organizing efforts by painting him as "not smart, or articulate" and to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the signatures indicating support for a union. 

Then when the election went forward, Amazon engaged in a full-blown campaign to combat the union drive, including text messages, signage and required group meetings to convey its anti-union message to workers. 

The results of that election showed that employees at the Staten Island, New York, facility voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionizing with Amazon Labor Union (ALU), the grassroots labor organization started by Smalls and other current and former Amazon employees of the facility.

This marks the first time a group of US workers have successfully voted to form a union in Amazon's 27-year history. 

The win is striking for a number of reasons, including that ALU is a scrappy effort unaligned with an established labor union.

Now, the milestone vote and the bootstrapped approach to achieve it may well have ripple effects throughout Amazon, where other union efforts are already underway.

It has the potential to motivate workers at other warehouses to unionize.