The Amazon Labor Union has affiliated itself with the Teamsters Union, one of the largest labor unions in the United States.
Should the Teamsters celebrate their new partnership with ALU, or did they handcuff themselves to the Titanic? All signs point to the latter.
Union organizer Chris Smalls founded the ALU in April 2021 with the goal of “spreading like wildfire across the nation.” As it turns out, the wildfire only spread to one location – Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, where workers narrowly voted to unionize the facility in April 2022. What you may not know is that the Biden administration signed, sealed, and delivered the ALU’s victory at JFK8. In 2020, Amazon employee Gerald Bryson grabbed a bullhorn and hurled racially charged and sexist comments at a female co-worker. Amazon terminated Bryson for his comments, which were livestreamed on social media.
One week before the JFK8 vote, Biden’s National Labor Relations Board filed an emergency injunction to force Amazon to rehire Bryson and give him 23 months of back pay. The NLRB argued that Amazon fired Bryson to thwart unionization efforts, tacitly endorsing the vulgarities Bryson spewed at his co-worker. The NLRB has since ruled that “profane, vulgar, racist, and otherwise insulting language” is protected union activity, a clear sign that there is virtually no limit to the tactics the NLRB will condone to benefit Big Labor.
The JFK8 win proved to be a pyrrhic victory for the ALU. Amazon is currently appealing the JFK8 election, citing the NLRB’s interference. Since the JFK8 vote, the ALU has failed to organize a single warehouse.
What the ALU lacks in wins, they make up for in infighting and mismanagement. Tension has boiled over between Smalls and several longtime allies, who say that Smalls “has focused on travel and public appearances” instead of mapping out a coherent strategy to unionize Amazon warehouses. ALU dissidents filed a complaint in federal court arguing that Smalls illegally refused to hold leadership elections. Despite Smalls’s best efforts to kill it, the ALU is likely to hold a leadership election this summer.
A look under the hood shows why Smalls doesn’t want a new election. A Wall Street Journal report shows that the ALU is hemorrhaging money, with prominent unions like the American Federation of Teachers revoking their financial support. Financial disclosure forms from 2023 show that the ALU spent $67,083 more than they took in, and that the ALU owes money to a landlord and law firm. The ALU also lost its union hall because of “lack of funds.”
The affiliation process will be turbulent, as ALU rank and file still have to ratify the affiliation agreement. ALU members blasted the announcement on X, accusing Smalls of cutting a backroom deal with the Teamsters and calling the process “super shady.”
Given the ALU’s immense baggage, why would the Teamsters choose to join arms with them? Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is likely betting that the NLRB will uphold the results of the JFK8 election, which would grant the ALU dues-paying members for the first time, allowing the Teamsters to gobble up that revenue.
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We know O’Brien is desperate for members because he just nullified a no-raid agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, allowing the Teamsters to poach their members. Workers are fleeing unions in droves, and unionization is at an all-time low. O’Brien knows the gravy train is coming to an end, so he’s fighting for the scraps.
The bottom line is clear: the Teamsters now own all of the ALU’s baggage. The ALU is a sinking ship, and the Teamsters are going down with it whether they know it or not.
Tom Hebert is director of competition and regulatory policy at Americans for Tax Reform and executive director of the Open Competition Center.
