From Amazon to Starbucks, union fever is breaking out.
“Unions built this country, and we need to make sure that they know that.”
Derrick Palmer, Vice President of Organizing
Amazon Labor Union
John –
It’s been just over a year since the New York Times ran this headline on the Amazon union drive in Bessemer, AL, where the fight for a union at the nation’s 2nd largest employer drew on-the-ground support from across the country – including BNC’s own Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman.
When the Alabama union drive failed last year (following a dubious vote that was later questioned by the NLRB), a lot of pundits declared the fight over. They said Amazon was just too big and too powerful.
But the workers were just getting started. The Staten Island, NY facility, led by organizer and fired-Amazon employee Christian Smalls, recently voted to become the first Amazon union in the country.
And in the course of a single week, over 100 facilities have already contacted the Amazon Labor Union hoping to follow suit.
The Amazon union vote comes on the heels of a wave of Starbucks workers organizing in 30 different states, and dozens of strikes last year for everything from John Deere to Frito Lay to the ongoing strike at Warrior Met Coal in Alabama.
All of these workers are up against laws that favor employers and weaken unions. We could change that with the passage of the PRO Act, but that bill died in the Senate when Joe Manchin refused to sign on.
We urgently need more working class people in Congress. The problems we are working to solve can only be addressed when the people closest to the pain are closest to the power.
The candidates we are up against are awash in corporate PAC money. It’s easy to pay lip service to unions when you need an endorsement, but we need people who are going to show up. And our candidates do.
Whether it’s organizing in their communities, or from the halls of Congress, BNC people consistently show up for workers.
Since 2016 BNC has led the way in advancing popular policies like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. We invest EARLY to help grassroots candidates succeed. We recruited and elected AOC in 2018 and Cori Bush in 2020 alongside Jamaal Bowman and Rashida Tliab. And we have our first win of 2022: Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick won her primary by FIVE votes thanks to BNC.
We have elections from now until November, and our candidates are counting on your support. Pitch in today and join us as we take over Congress and return power to the people.
