Workers at Amazon’s only unionized warehouse in the U.S. have elected new union leaders, a vote count revealed Tuesday, the first major change for the union since it formed an alliance with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
A slate of candidates led by a former Amazon worker named Connor Spence won the most votes from workers at the warehouse in the Staten Island borough of New York City. Though turnout was very low, Spence won enough support to lead the Amazon Labor Union, which is seeking a contract with a company that has resisted those efforts for years.
Spence, a prominent union organizer, recently led a dissident group that sued the union last year to force a new leadership election amid internal unrest. He was fired by Amazon last year for violating a company policy that prohibits workers from entering company buildings or outside work areas when not working, a policy that critics say is designed to stifle organizing.
Only 5% of the 5,312 employees who worked at the warehouse voted by mail, said Arthur Schwartz, an attorney representing the dissident group. Spence received 137 of the 247 votes cast, Schwartz said, beating out a current ALU official named Claudia Ashterman and another prominent organizer named Michelle Valentin.
“After more than two years of fighting to reform our union and make it more democratic, transparent and militant, we are relieved to finally turn our attention to bringing Amazon to the table and winning an incredible contract,” Spence said in a statement.
Workers at the same warehouse voted overwhelmingly last month to unionize with the Teamsters, which agreed to provide financial assistance and other support to the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) until it negotiates a contract with Amazon and begins collecting dues from members.
The affiliation agreement, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, says the ALU will be chartered as an “autonomous” Teamsters local with the right to organize Amazon warehouse workers throughout New York City. The union’s affiliate, known as ALU-International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1, is also expected to help organize Amazon warehouse workers elsewhere and participate in strategy sessions.
“The question is whether the election results, plus the Teamster affiliation, can create the kind of momentum among rank-and-file members that’s needed,” said Ruth Milkman, a sociologist of labor and labor movements at the City University of New York. “But even if they do, Amazon is going to fight it tooth and nail.”
Spence takes over the leadership role from Chris Smalls, a former Amazon employee who led the first successful U.S. unionization effort in the retail giant’s history in 2022, when workers at the Staten Island warehouse voted in favor of ALU representation.
However, organizers within the union began to question Smalls’ strategy after the group suffered two consecutive election losses in New York and withdrew a petition for a union vote in California. Some quietly left, while others joined the dissident group led by Spence.
Smalls did not seek re-election, instead supporting a slate of candidates led by Ashterman.
Since mail ballots were sent to workers in early July, candidates vying for leadership positions have campaigned vigorously during shift breaks and in public spaces near the warehouse, formally known as the JFK8 Fulfillment Center. Morning and evening campaigning also took place in front of a bus stop near the facility.
On a recent evening, Spence and a few members of the dissident group set up a small tent at the bus stop and handed out heat safety literature and cold bottles of water to workers starting and ending their 10-hour shifts. Other candidates set up a table where they played music or talked to warehouse workers waiting to go home.
Some workers waited 45 minutes or more for a shuttle bus to arrive, a sore point familiar to candidates who campaigned to acquire or raise money for additional shuttle buses.
Spence said in an interview earlier this month that joint strategy sessions with the Teamsters would take place once Local 1 has new leadership. But the powerful union has already begun to offer support, footing the bill for the Amazon warehouse election and providing legal help when needed.
Spence said the Teamsters offered him legal support two weeks ago when Amazon called local police to an ALU meeting being held at the warehouse. During the meeting, which was attended by some Teamsters organizers, officers arrested Spence and six other participants for blocking a driveway.
Amazon spokeswoman Mary Kate Paradis said the company also asked non-employees to leave the site. But organizers said the protest was held on a patch of grass they believed to be public property and where they had previously held other gatherings.
Since unionizing with the Teamsters, Amazon has made minor changes to its warehouse, workers said. The company, which has used methods to ward off unionization, has installed fencing around the building’s parking lot and posted security guards to monitor everyone entering and leaving the premises.
Company spokesperson Paradis says Amazon took these additional measures for safety reasons and to prevent the violations of the rules that have occurred in recent weeks.
Amazon continues to face worker unrest elsewhere, including in Kentucky, where workers at a major company, Air Hub, held a one-day strike last week in partnership with the Teamsters union. More than 100 Amazon contract drivers in the northern suburbs of Chicago have been striking since late June, demanding higher pay and better health insurance, the Teamsters said.
But Amazon has also had some successes in recent weeks.
In mid-July, warehouse workers in Britain narrowly rejected a unionization bid at a facility in Coventry, a city about 100 miles northwest of London. If successful, it would be the first union ever formed at an Amazon warehouse in the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, a Washington state judge last week ruled in the company’s favor in a high-profile worker safety case, in which regulators alleged that Amazon unnecessarily exposed workers to risk of injury.
On Staten Island, the ALU dissident group is trying to push warehouse workers out of their comfort zone and motivate them around issues like heat safety and Juneteenth, for which Amazon doesn’t offer paid time off, Spence said.
He hopes the organizing effort will eventually lead to a strike, which he believes is the only thing that will get Amazon to the negotiating table. But he also knows that one unionized warehouse isn’t enough leverage.
“To get them to the table, there has to be a national organizing campaign,” Spence said. “We have to identify strategic choke points, organize those warehouses, and strike at the same time.”
Attorney Schwartz said the local union’s new leaders will be sworn in on Wednesday.