NC Newsline: “Voting opened at 4 a.m. Monday morning in an election that will determine whether workers in Garner form the first Amazon warehouse union in the South after nearly three years of organizing.
Workers will have until Saturday Feb. 15 at noon to cast either a “Yes” vote in favor or a “No” vote against the formation of a union that would represent roughly 4,300 workers at Garner’s RDU1 Amazon fulfillment center, encompassing full-time, part-time, flex, and seasonal warehouse associates. This vote comes after years of campaigning by the Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE, a movement founded by warehouse workers Rev. Ryan Brown and “Ma” Mary Hill in 2022.
If more than 50% of voters cast “Yes” ballots, the workers will form a union with the right to bargain for a contract with the shipping giant. Priorities stated by CAUSE include higher wages ($30 an hour for Tier 1 and Tier 2 warehouse associates), scheduling consistency, more paid time off, a one-hour paid lunch, accommodations for injured or disabled workers, and equal treatment of workers across sex, race, and national origin….
Should the CAUSE vote succeed, the Garner facility would become just the second unionized Amazon warehouse in the U.S., after the JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island formed the Amazon Labor Union in 2022. Labor activist Christian Smalls, who led that effort, joined the organizers hoping to follow his example at a Garner rally that drew more than 100 Saturday.
“You can’t tell me that this company can’t be unionized, because it’s already unionized,” Smalls said to cheers. “Win, lose, or draw next week, you guys already got y’all’s union. This union ain’t going nowhere, right?””