This election season, workers at Amazon’s Garner, North Carolina warehouse have a different vote on their mind.
In September, the Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) began card collection for their union election. If they are successful, they will join JFK8 in Staten Island as the second unionized Amazon warehouse in the country.
For Amazon workers, their unionization efforts are a fight for democracy — in their workplace.
“We can’t rely on one person to be our savior and make everything better,” said Juno Rondelli, a worker at Amazon’s RDU 1 Warehouse. “Many times unions have protected trans healthcare and certain medical rights that aren’t protected by the state.”
Though the outcome of the presidential election will have a major impact on workers’ rights on a national level, CAUSE members believe that in order to have their demands met, they need to organize. One of CAUSE’s primary demands is to raise their hourly wage to $30 an hour, in order to meet the living wage standards in Wake County. The starting hourly wage for a warehouse worker at RDU1 is $18.50.
“Last quarter Jeff Bezos made 7.9 million dollars an hour,” said Mary “Ma” Hill, a CAUSE founder who has worked at Amazon for six years. “Why is it that most of the people that work at Amazon, RDU 1 in Garner, North Carolina, work two jobs?”
CAUSE Leaders Reverend Ryan Brown and Mary “Ma Mary” Hill show their signed union cards, September 2nd, 2024. (Photo courtesy of CAUSE.)
Another major concern is the lack of workplace safety, which has been echoed by workers at Amazon warehouses across the country. Shancia Highsmith, who is a packer at RDU1, was given medical accommodations for a health condition, but found that Amazon did not respect them.
“I was packing and my manager came here and was like, ‘Oh, you’re packing a little bit slow’ and I think they wrote me up for that,” Highsmith said. “So I was like, ‘Okay, so why would we have accommodations?’”
Several Amazon workers told Pavement Pieces that paramedics are called to the warehouse multiple times a week and that workers frequently faint on the job. Reverend Ryan Brown, a CAUSE founder and an Amazon worker since 2019, was inspired to start organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic when his bosses told him he had no choice but to work in a COVID–19 hotspot, despite the fact that he lived with individuals who were high risk.
“Only a slave doesn’t have a choice,” said Brown, who used his experiences as a preacher to begin getting workers together to form a union.
A CAUSE canvaser stands outside RDU1 during afternoon shift change on Labor Day 2024. (Photo courtesy of CAUSE.)
Regardless of who wins the presidential election, CAUSE members have an uphill battle ahead of them. Across the country, Amazon has been accused of engaging in union busting through anti-union posters and captive audience meetings. According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Amazon has over 200 open or settled cases for violating workers’ rights to organize. Several judges have ruled against the company and have ordered Amazon to stop interfering with workers’ organizing rights. Earlier this year, Amazon joined Trader Joe’s and SpaceX in a federal lawsuit against the NLRB, claiming that the institution’s structure is unconstitutional.
“Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and probably some others, want to take away our voice,” said Hill. “We want you to do the work, but we don’t want to hear a thing you got to say.”
CAUSE organizers also have to deal with the challenges of unionizing in a Right-to-work state. North Carolina is one of the 27 states that make it illegal to require employees of unionized workplaces to join the union.
“Right-to-work is a fallacy,” said Benny Koval, a CAUSE organizer who started working at Amazon this year. “It’s an attack on workers’ rights, on civil rights. It’s an attack on collective bargaining.”
Donald J. Trump has expressed support for Right-to-work laws. Elon Musk has made several appearances at Trump’s rallies and campaign events, in which Trump supported firing striking workers.
Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, has expressed her support for the PRO Act, which would make it easier for workers to organize unions in their workplaces. Still, CAUSE members want to see more action from political figures.
“They’re gonna pay lip service to unions, but neither of them really care about workers,” said Koval.
North Carolina is one of the most important states in this year’s election. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 and 2020. With the amount of political diversity in their state and workplace, CAUSE wants to stay away from partisan politics.
“Everybody’s entitled to be democrat, independent, libertarian, whatever. That has nothing to do with CAUSE,” said Hill.
Jeff Bezos, however, came under fire for interfering with the Washington Post’s endorsement of Harris. As the owner of the newspaper, Bezos has taken a partisan stance that other media outlets have criticized for violating journalistic ethics.
“They say ‘Democracy dies in darkness,” said Brown. “Well, it’s mighty, mighty dark.”
A correction was made on Nov. 5, 2024: An earlier version of this article stated that Shancia Highsmith struggled getting accommodations for her PCOS. Highsmith was given accommodations for a health condition, but found that Amazon did not respect them.
