Union organizer Chris Smalls speaks following the April 1st, 2022, vote for the unionization of the Amazon Staten Island warehouse in New York. | Photo by ANDREA RENAULT / AFP via Getty Images
Amazon Labor Union (ALU) members voted to affiliate with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in a move they hope will bring new life to a yearslong struggle to secure union contracts for Amazon warehouse workers.
Amazon has tried to block various efforts to unionize across different branches of the company since at least 2000, but the movement to unionize warehouse workers only gained steam in the past few years. The Teamsters, founded in 1903, is one of the biggest labor unions in the US.
Employees at the Staten Island warehouse, known as JFK8, became the first Amazon workers to vote to unionize in 2022. They still don’t have a contract, as the union struggles to get Amazon to the bargaining table. Union members at JFK8 approved…