MIKE ELK, mike.elk@gmail.com, @MikeElk
Elk is senior labor reporter at Payday Report. His most recent piece is “Amazon Union Demands Union Reps in Discipline — Want Bargaining to Begin in May — Strike Threat on the Table.”

He said today: “The NLRB announced that the independent Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island has won an election to represent Amazon workers at its warehouse.

“The Staten Island union election is a historic victory. It marks the first time an Amazon warehouse has been unionized and it will likely inspire more unionizing efforts.

“The effort was led most incredibly by an independent union formed by rank and file workers and without the support of a major union. Workers formed the union on their own after a group of 60 workers went on a wildcat strike in March of 2020, resulting in the union’s president Christian Smalls being fired.

“No one in the labor establishment saw the victory at Amazon on Staten Island coming and no one saw 170 Starbucks stores unionizing. What else could happen this year that no one has predicted?

“This victory could inspire more rank and file organizing efforts elsewhere. For years, activists have been told that it’s impossible to organize Amazon, but now workers have achieved the impossible.”