Three people were arrested on Dec. 6 while distributing food and gathering union authorization cards for Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) at Amazon’s RDU-1 Warehouse in Garner, N.C.
The arrests were made days after the union’s president, Ryan Brown, was fired by Amazon for allegedly making racist remarks, according to a statement from the company. CAUSE members believe this is an escalation of union busting tactics as they proceed with their card collecting campaign.
Eleanor Ross and Lily Ross, who are CAUSE supporters but not Amazon employees, were arrested for “resist, delay and obstruct due to refusing to provide identification after a lawful request to,” according to a statement provided to Pavement Pieces by the Garner Police Department.
Orin Starn, a former Amazon employee with an open Unfair Labor Practice case with the National Labor Relations Board, was arrested for trespassing. The public arrest record can be found here.
In a video posted on the CAUSE Instagram page, Amazon Senior Operations Managers Emily Longo and Tim Maher were seen telling CAUSE members that they were not allowed to set up structures on Amazon property. A police officer asked CAUSE members for their ID. They declined. A CAUSE Supporter repeatedly asked if they were being detained or they were free to go, to which the officer responded, “You’re not being detained, but you are being trespassed.”
When the supporter asked for a second time, the officer responded, “You’re not being detained.” The two supporters were then seen being put in handcuffs.
CAUSE members and their allies began distributing free food and union information before the Thanksgiving holidays, according to Starn.
“Because of the poverty wages Amazon pays, a lot of workers are going hungry,” said Starn, who is a professor of anthropology at Duke University.
Starn worked at Amazon for two years. He has published several articles about his experiences. He has a pending Unfair Labor Practice case against Amazon with the NLRB.
According to the National Labor Relations Act, an employee “shall include any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice.”
Because his case is still pending, Starn believes he still has the right to organize on Amazon’s property.
“Last Friday, several individuals who aren’t Amazon employees or partners came on to our property and refused multiple requests to leave,” said Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards in a statement to Pavement Pieces. “After repeated attempts to remedy the situation and consistent with our standard protocols, we engaged law enforcement for assistance. Those individuals were eventually arrested after refusing to follow the police officer’s orders.”
CAUSE members and supporters had been tabling and distributing food for several days without police interference. On Nov. 27, CAUSE posted on X a video of a confrontation between Brown, the union president, and Amazon managers as they distributed food. The video showed Amazon managers in yellow vests asking attendees to identify themselves. Brown, who was holding a megaphone, approached Amazon Manager Delmar Johnson.
“You are Black man fighting your own people,” Brown can be heard telling Johnson in the video. “You’re on the wrong side of history.”
Brown was also seen telling attendees not to identify themselves. The police were not alerted. It is unclear if this incident was related to his termination.
“Mr. Brown was terminated for repeated misconduct that included making derogatory and racist comments to his co-workers,” said Spokesperson Hards, “Mr. Brown has a history of using derogatory and racist language and following a previous investigation that substantiated similar misconduct, he was issued a final written warning.”
Brown said that Amazon began making allegations of racism against him shortly after he became involved in union organizing. “If I’ve been saying all these racist comments, why did they fire me a long time ago?” said Brown.
After receiving a warning from Amazon about the alleged racist remarks last year, Brown filed a ULP with the NLRB. The NLRB found merit in the complaint and opened an investigation. Brown withdrew his complaint in October of this year, telling Pavement Pieces, “I dropped the charge because I was told the only justice I could get was the warning would be rescinded. I didn’t see the need to waste my energy with that.”
Brown believes that Amazon accused him of racism to weaken the union and deflect from their own racist practices.
“Why do you think most brown people and black people call this a 21st century plantation?” he asked. “That is the experience of most workers of color. They put their facilities in communities of color, [then] they don’t pay them a living wage.”
