Things are changing 2018 saw the most strike activity since 1986. Workers realize that collective problems require collective action. Having a minority union in the workplace changes the calculus for workers. They take action on the shop floor with petitions, slow downs, walk-outs, and protests. Minority unionism is when a group of workers act like a union despite not having a majority in the workplace or a contract with an employer. This strategy is called minority or solidarity unionism. Instead of pushing immediately towards an election that depends on the majority of workers – an often flawed strategy – they have put in the time and commitment to build a durable worker-led institution where workers build their union. So why did this happen in Minneapolis? It happened because Minneapolis is one of the only locations where unions have dedicated resources to help Amazon workers organize – and they are demonstrating how to do it right. These actions forged unity and solidarity on the shop floor people looked out for each other. Workers who might have been suspicious of the organized workers in the beginning started to see alternative ways to deal with their problems, and more have started to join and lead workplace actions. They started to trust in each other, and recognized that their fight was just and morally right. They organized across ethnic groups, age gaps, gender and racial divisions. They held workplace socials to get to know each other better. Demands bridged better conditions on the shop floor to broader demands around faith, transit and housing. These were followed by Muslim workers demanding better rights during Ramadan, when fasting workers struggled to make rate. Another petition followed for stolen wages for drivers. At first they picked a fight about the removal of a bus line that connected the East African residential area to the warehouse. Starting three years ago, a small cohort of workers in conjunction with union organizers started to fight back. The vast majority have never experienced their own collective power. Support and site lead jobs pay a few dollars more and get you off the floor, but few workers are able to climb up the hierarchy. If one doesn’t move out, one might try to make the best of things and move up. The turnover in an Amazon warehouse ranges from 2-3% a week, or over 106% a year in a ‘normal’ facility. They bounce from one job to another in search of something better. Workers resist, albeit by often pursuing individual solutions to collective problems. Amazon profits from having the highest rate of exploitation in the industry, paying average retail industry wages to workers who are far more productive. Managers received productivity bonuses, while we got injured or fired. During my year in an Amazon sortation center outside of Seattle, the rate increased by more than 50%. This rate is constantly pushed higher as new rounds of workers are hired and fired. The “rate” of work is set for each job at a pace that only 75% of workers are able to meet. Resembling the factory line, the pace of work is dictated by the complex algorithms, robots and surveillance systems that discipline worker movements down to the second. Rather than retail workers distributed across the city – say a worker folding clothes in a mall or stocking books in a local bookstore – Amazon has reorganized the retail process into retail factories with thousands of workers in each fulfillment center. The worker demands relate to the way Amazon has radically transformed retail work. In a period where union membership is less than 10% in the United States – by far the lowest in the developed world – this strike by non-union Amazon workers demonstrates that workers want a union and are willing to fight for one. This action, although small, holds momentous importance. They were demanding a less punishing pace of work and the elimination of temporary jobs. This was the first major strike action by Amazon workers in the United States. O n 15 July 2019 Amazon fulfillment workers outside Minneapolis in the suburb of Shakopee walked off the job for six hours, joining workers across Europe in an Amazon Prime Day strike.
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