Q&A: Amazon union leader sounds alarm on Trump, AI

Chris Smalls is a 2023 Mozilla Rise25 honouree. Mozilla’s Rise25 awards celebrate the people leading the next wave of AI - using philanthropy, collective power, and the principles of open source to make sure the future of AI is responsible, trustworthy, inclusive and centred around human dignity. 

Context is a partner of Mozilla Rise25.

WASHINGTON - Chris Smalls became one of the most prominent labor organizers in the United States using creativity, ingenuity and hard work to build union support among wary workers.

In 2020, Smalls was fired from his job as an assistant manager in a New York City-area Amazon warehouse after raising concerns over a lack of COVID-19 protections.

The next year, he oversaw creation of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), the first in the country, followed by a 2022 worker vote.

Today the ALU, which covers about 8,300 workers at that facility, remains the country's only union at an Amazon warehouse.

Smalls, who served as president until last year and is now a consultant for the union, is trying to ensure it's only the first of many.

The ALU's success has prompted organizing work in at least 25 other Amazon facilities across the United States.

Amazon is the world's second-largest private employer after Walmart. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

Now Smalls, 36, is turning his focus towards workers at warehouses across Amazon's global operations.

"This was the first union in American history of Amazon workers – a monumental win. It inspired a resurgence of the labor movement not just here in America but worldwide," he told Context.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When did you start at Amazon, and when did you start to realize that worker rights weren't being adequately protected?

I started at Amazon in 2015 in New Jersey, hired as a 'picker' or package handler inside the warehouse.

In 2018, I was transferred to Staten Island up until my termination, which was in 2020. I led a walkout over COVID-19 – that's when I realized that the company was failing to protect its workers from the pandemic.

We were deemed essential workers; we were told to deliver packages, and we were packing and shipping things out for people to be safe. But at the same time, we weren't. We didn’t have any facial masks, we didn't have the proper gloves, we didn’t have the social distancing that was required and was impossible inside of a warehouse full of 5-8,000 people.

And Amazon was forcing us to work during the pandemic when we should have been quarantined like most people were.

When they fired me, that made it seem like disregard for our lives, so that forced me to continue to advocate for workers. Initially, it was not about unionizing – it was about COVID health-and-safety concerns.

But after a year and a half, we saw a campaign (to unionize Amazon workers) in Alabama that was unsuccessful.

So we tried to do it our way – which was independently, to do it Amazon workers-led. That was the beginning of the Amazon Labor Union; that was in 2021.

What initial responses did you get from workers?

It was definitely hard every step of the way. Workers are deathly afraid to talk about any type of unionizing, especially in this country, where unionizing is less than 6%.

So it was really spending the first three months educating them. We did that, and what made it unique was we made it cultural. I spent over 300 days at the bus stop outside the building that fired me. I set up a tent, I set up a bonfire, set up a grill. We were cooking food, inviting people, we were rejoicing, playing music – doing all of these cultural things just to bring people to the tent.

And then little by little, we were educating them on what a union is, what we were trying to do.

After the union was created, what did you push for, and what successes have you seen?

We didn't realize how big this impact was until after we won.

The day we won, we had $2.50 in our account from raising money through GoFundMe, and then the next day we had over $300,000, $400,000.

People came from every corner of the world, donating, helping us. We were able to purchase our first office, and we were able to travel to different cities and help start other locations.

Most importantly, we helped draft the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, a bill passed in the state of New York. That not only protects Amazon workers, but it protects all warehouse workers.

Now, management can't just write you up for anything; they have to be transparent along the whole process.

Number two, it allows workers to have longer breaks or unlimited bathroom breaks, for whatever reason.

Lastly, productivity for our warehouse is now eliminated, meaning they can't use an hourly rate system the way they do in other buildings.

But we didn't get a bargaining order; we still don't have one to this day, so there's no contract that will give workers all of the demands that we ask them for – like higher wages; better medical leave options; free college for yourself, your spouse, your children; and definitely health and safety concerns, making sure the job is secure and safe.

Hopefully we'll be able to do that after we go on strike again. We're currently planning a strike for some time before the next Prime Day [July], aiming to do something around that time.

We just had one in December nationwide, which picked up a lot of traction and added another 10,000 Amazon workers.

Has your work prompted similar efforts elsewhere?

Worldwide, there have been campaigns against Amazon sparked because of the victory we had.

Here in America there have been at least 25 different campaigns since we won. The ones in America with the Amazon Teamsters division, who we're now affiliated with – we're helping these campaigns from Kentucky to California.

There's an active campaign in North Carolina, where they'll vote for their union on Feb. 10.

But it's worldwide. Canada had a successful campaign; Amazon is now closing that warehouse, but there are still going to be campaigns in Canada.

I've been blessed to meet workers in Italy, France, Brazil, Ireland, Iceland, the UK, Canada, South Africa and India. Amazon is a worldwide company, so it's a worldwide fight.

And having these relationships with these unions and Amazon workers is building international solidarity, so that one day we can successfully call a worldwide demonstration against the company.

Will the return of Donald Trump to the White House affect your efforts?

Yes, definitely, we're under threat. The National Labor Relations Board is going to be eradicated; I saw them give a cease-and-desist to the Department of Labor to stop all investigative reports about workplace violations.

So the sense of urgency is really here, and it's not just for us – it's for everybody. We're in trouble, and we need defense at the federal level but also the local level.

But it's not just Donald Trump. We're under threat from artificial intelligence. Within the next five years, AI is going to wipe out 50% of American jobs, overnight.

So for tech activists and workers, they have to have a real “moral compass” conversation about what side they want to be on.

If there are no contracts or regulations that will protect or preserve our jobs, we're all going to be replaced by artificial intelligence and robots.

So for tech workers, I just try to advocate staying in solidarity with the working class, because that's where we all come from.

Once we negotiate a contract, everything is on the table, and the number one thing would be job security, making sure that there is no way for the company to replace us with automation.

Hopefully every union is on the same page. Their contracts need to include language that's going to protect their members from automation.

(Reporting by Carey L Biron; Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ellen Wulfhorst.)