Amazon Woes

[lpetrich]

Late yesterday:
Amazon Labor Union on Twitter: "Current Vote Totals:
1518 Yes
1154 No
364 votes in ALU’s favor to wrap up today’s count. Counting will resume at 10am tomorrow. #UnionYes #ALUForTheWin" / Twitter
It seemed too good to be true.

AOC and commentator Krystal Ball then got into a Twitter fight.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "" / Twitter

Krystal Ball on Twitter: "@AOC Here’s the guy who organized the union drive talking about how you left them high and dry. These are your constituents and you couldn’t be bothered to show up until they’re on the cusp of victory. (link)" / Twitter
noting
AOC, Bernie ABANDON Amazon Labor Union At Last Minute | Krystal Kyle & Friends Podcast - YouTube - "Krystal and Kyle Kulinski of Krystal Kyle & Friends talk with Amazon labor organizer Christian Smalls about his campaign to get NYC Amazon warehouses unionized and the lack of support from AOC and Bernie"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@krystalball The warehouse isn’t in my district and maybe you should look at a map before claiming so. One scheduling conflict aside, we have requested oversight investigations into Amazon, met with Amazon workers in the Woodside warehouses, and more. Hope you do more due diligence next time." / Twitter

Jordan on Twitter: "@AOC @krystalball I was told by workers that your folks told them at last minute it was a security issue--not a scheduling conflict. Whether ur district or not, you would think a NY Congressman could've tweeted support--particularly in final weeks--for one of the most important union drives in U.S" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@JordanChariton @krystalball Security was an issue as well. 2021 included a lot of high level threats on my life, which limited what activities I was able to do, especially those outside. The combination of that + when we are able to get resources/time to secure them creates scheduling + logistical conflicts" / Twitter

Jordan on Twitter: "@AOC @krystalball With respect, there's no security concerns with sending out support to @amazonlabor trying to win the first unionized Amazon to 13 million followers. Your voice and organizing power makes a difference." / Twitter

Krystal Ball on Twitter: "@JordanChariton @AOC @amazonlabor No security concerns at the met gala " / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

This seems a lot like the Judean People's Front vs. the People's Front of Judea, a satire of left-wingers squabbling among themselves.

LeftOfTheDial on Twitter: "@krystalball @AOC We just won an important victory. How does it benefit the left to get into petty spats over congratulatory Tweets rather than celebrating a rare win for working people? Is the left in such good shape that we can afford to be further divided for… what?" / Twitter

Logical Leftist on Twitter: "@krystalball @AOC Krystal Ball and Kyle have slowly but surely just started moving to Glenn Greenwald, Grayzone-esque content and appealing to Jimmy Dore fans. As a decade long viewer of Secular Talk: staking your reputation on people like this was a mistake, Kyle." / Twitter

Some left-wingers have been attacking the "Fraud Squad" for not doing enough. But what do they want? Do they really want Joe Crowley or Michelle Caruso-Cabrera or Mike Capuano or Antone Melton-Meaux or Eliot Engel or Lacy Clay?

Dan Price on Twitter: "@AOC @krystalball i love and admire Krystal greatly, but I have scheduling conflicts constantly. life happens. things come up. i don't think it's realistic to ask one person to be at every event and solve every problem" / Twitter

Krystal Ball on Twitter: "@DanPriceSeattle @AOC Not 1 member of the squad showed up. They all ghosted Chris. & this wasn’t just another event. It was the most substantial worker led organizing effort at one of the most powerful companies in the world. They all had excuses? For all the many months of this organizing drive?" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@krystalball @DanPriceSeattle So what exactly is the insinuation here? That we are secretly in the tank for Amazon? That we’re “sellouts” despite leading congressional investigations into Amazon, taking huge blowback to call out the scam HQ2 deal, meeting with workers in our district warehouses? It’s reaching" / Twitter

That was a proposed Amazon second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, something advertised as making possible 25,000 jobs, but at the expense of big tax breaks and giveaways like for building a helipad.

Krystal Ball on Twitter: "@AOC @DanPriceSeattle You’ll have to say for yourself why you didn’t even tweet out your support. I have no way to know. You gonna reply to @Shut_downAmazon? I’d say his view matters a lot more than mine" / Twitter

Mag McV on Twitter: "@krystalball @AOC @DanPriceSeattle @Shut_downAmazon I could be wrong but I could have sworn on a recent episode of BP, you said "if someone on the right says something they disagree with, they just keep quiet and keep working on their common goals. This is why they keep winning. The left never stops fighting."" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Sean on Twitter: "@MagMcv @krystalball @AOC @DanPriceSeattle @Shut_downAmazon The overwhelming majority of the listeners to Breaking Points dislike progressive politicians and policies according to their own polls they run for the community. She's doing this intentionally for her new audience." / Twitter

That's the podcast that Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti created after departing from TheHill Rising.

Sean on Twitter: "@AVohoh @MagMcv @krystalball @AOC @DanPriceSeattle @Shut_downAmazon Breaking Points base is literally conservatives who agree with Joe Manchin (pic link)" / Twitter
Showing poll results for "Manchin right to tank Biden's Build Back Better legislation?"

• Yes: 55%
• No: 33%
• Unsure: 12%

This another member of The Squad chimed in.

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "@krystalball @DanPriceSeattle @AOC I was never asked to show up, please don’t speak to whether I would have shown up or not. I rallied with Amazon workers in MN in subzero weather outside of my district. As a union person, I have dropped everything anytime my union siblings needed me to show up and always will." / Twitter

Vaush on Twitter: "@IlhanMN @krystalball @DanPriceSeattle @AOC Ilhan, I’m noticing you’re getting a lot of hate from accounts that exclusively focus on tearing down left-leaning politicians and are suspiciously quiet about the rising far-right. Have you considered being perfect/not existing/becoming a conservative to appease them?" / Twitter

SatanWorshippingDoom on Twitter: "@VaushV @IlhanMN @krystalball @DanPriceSeattle @AOC I'm so glad I stopped watching Krystal and Saagar ages ago." / Twitter

 

[Bomb#20]

Amazon Workers on Staten Island Vote to Unionize - The New York Times - "Despite heavy lobbying by the company, workers at the facility voted by a wide margin for a union. It was seen as a rebuke of the company’s treatment of its employees."

... The win on Staten Island could herald a new era for labor unions in the United States, which saw the portion of workers in unions drop last year to 10.3 percent, the lowest rate in decades, despite widespread labor shortages...

"despite"?

The point of a union is to reduce competition between workers for scarce jobs. When labor shortages are widespread is precisely when workers get the least benefit from unionizing.

Amazon fired him – now he’s trying to unionize 5,000 workers in New York | Amazon | The Guardian

Christian Smalls is taking on the fiercely anti-union colossus , convinced that a union of only Amazon workers is the smartest way to rally Amazon employees
...
Smalls is taking a highly unusual route in pursuing this goal; he has founded an independent union, the Amazon Labor Union, convinced that a new union comprising only Amazon workers is the smartest way to rally Amazon employees behind a union after the crushing defeat of an effort to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama earlier this year.

Good for him. Having one of those giant unions that represents hundreds of workplaces is a recipe for having the union ignore your local concerns.

He seems to have won so far.
Steven Greenhouse on Twitter: "When Christian Smalls ..." / Twitter

When Christian Smalls & other current & former Amazon workers began organizing Amazon in Staten Island last year, many said his chances of winning were infinitesimal.

But after today's count, 1518 to 1154, a win for Smalls' union is inevitable—That's huge

Amazon had fired Smalls, & its top executives planned to smear him as "not smart or articulate"

"They said they’d make me the whole face of the union effort against Amazon,” Smalls told me last June. “I’m trying to make them eat their words”

SMALLS HAS MADE THEM EAT THEIR WORDS

Smalls said the secret of success for a union drive like the one in Staten Island is worker-to-worker organizing -- workers who know the stresses & strains of working at Amazon talking to other workers.

That's a lot like the secret of success in the Starbucks unionization wins

These successes seem like labor unionization returning to its roots.