We’re fighting to become the first Amazon union in the South. Here’s our story.

I’m the president of the union at RDU1, an  Amazon warehouse just outside Raleigh, NC. After years of organizing, my colleagues will vote on unionization this week, from February 10 to February 15th. If we win, we’ll become the first unionized Amazon facility in the South. 

Coming off historic holiday strikes at Amazon facilities around the country and the first Whole Foods union victory since Amazon bought it, we have the momentum. 

But Jeff Bezos doesn’t want to let us win. His new ally Donald Trump just illegally fired a member of the National Labor Relations Board, which means the agency tasked with enforcing labor laws won’t have a quorum to rule on violations during this election period. 

Amazon is taking advantage of the lack of oversight. They’re installing new TVs all over the warehouse, which play anti-union propaganda on a loop. They’re blacking out the windows so that workers can’t look at anything else on your breaks. And they’ve installed metal detectors in new, odd, places. It’s downright Orwellian. We can’t do our jobs to get people their packages without being distracted by a barrage of propaganda.

We founded this union during the pandemic, when Amazon refused to take simple steps to protect workers. We weren’t provided masks or gloves, and when employees expressed concerns about conditions, the answer was “too bad.” 

I’m a man of faith, so I prayed on what to do. The answer I got was clear: organize.

So, for two years, we’ve built Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Equality (CAUSE) into a strong, united force at RDU1.

But Amazon is fighting us every step of the way. They are using captive audience meetings (the kind that was ruled unlawful in November, but which the NLRB no longer has the quorum to enforce) to divide us by race. For example, they’ll pick out a group of Hispanic workers and tell them that the Black union members just don’t want to work as hard, and that’s why they want a union. This union busting is disgusting.

Amazon is pulling out all the stops because they are scared. They saw us in the streets before Christmas. They saw our comrades at Whole Foods pull off a win last month. Amazon knows that if we can win a union in North Carolina, we can win anywhere. That’s why they’re going overboard to try to stop us.

Our union doesn’t want to shut down Amazon. We want the public to see the way Amazon exploits and dehumanizes people instead of treating them with dignity. The way Amazon treats us is not the only way to get packages to you in two days or less.

Jeff Bezos is the second richest man in the world. He has said “The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel.”

While he’s got his eyes on space, we’re fighting for a liveable wage, and for adequate staffing so that no one loses a limb for two day shipping. It’s not too much to ask.

Amazon has played dirty the whole time. They believe that they have enough money and power to break labor laws and fire union organizers without drawbacks. But we’re going to show them that all the money in the world doesn’t mean anything if they don’t have the people. And we’re seeing record-breaking attendance at our membership meetings in the run up to this election. Everything I’m seeing shows that Amazon’s union-busting is backfiring, and driving people to vote yes.

We’ll find out after the voting. Until then, I’ll keep organizing.

If you want to support CAUSE in the election, donate to The Labor Force, a 501(c)4 that is providing resources to CAUSE.