10 AWP Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 February 22–28, 2019
Our Perspective
Why We Stood Up
to Amazon
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, UFCW
mandatory overtime, workplace injuries, and
pressure to come into work regardless of
personal issues or even dangerous weather
conditions. In the United Kingdom alone,
there have been 600 ambulance calls to the
online retailer’s warehouses in the past three
years, and, according to a study by the GMB
union, roughly 80 percent of workers
experience pain on the job.
Why would anyone in the labor
movement question our attempts to hold
Amazon accountable for the way they treat
their workers, and for our efforts to protect
New York’s Amazon employees? The labor
movement was created to defend working
men and women against these types of
transgressions and exploitation, and it is our
duty to defend our values.
The HQ2 saga in New York may be over,
but this is the start of a much larger fight with
even broader implications. This is an
important moment for workers, who have
proven that when we stand together, we can
make our voices heard even against the
richest corporations and individuals on Earth.
It’s up to us to make sure that workers’ issues
remain at the forefront, and that future
economic development deals are crafted with
respect to the concerns of workers and their
communities, in New York
and beyond. Economic
development can
benefit all of us, not
just the wealthiest few.
My union, the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union, stood with
our allies in New York City against
the Amazon HQ2 development in Queens for
one simple reason: it is time to confront a
powerful economic giant that is transforming
our future world of work into one where
workers have no voice and a wealthy few hold
all the power.
Workers across the globe are in danger of
having their issues take a permanent backseat
to the concerns of the super-rich and the
largest global corporations. The workers who
make our economy work shouldn’t be told
that they should be happy with the crumbs
that will fall off the table; it is our right and our
responsibility to be involved and demand that
workers’ issues remain a part of the
conversation.
In New York, this meant that we fight for
labor neutrality in any Amazon deal, so that
working men and women at Amazon are free
to decide for themselves – without employer
interference – if they want to seek union
representation to make their jobs and their
lives better. This is a common practice and
appropriate public policy in New York City and
State and has been part of countless
economic development deals here.
And yet, despite Governor Cuomo’s direct
request to Amazon to discuss labor concerns
with New York’s labor movement, Amazon
chose to abruptly walk away.
This isn’t how New York does business
and makes deals, nor should it be, especially
with an employer with a history as checkered
as Amazon’s. Amazon workers have reported
grueling hours, exhausting physical labor,
www.rwdsu.org
NYC★ WORKS
CELEBRATING LABOR IN THE BIG APPLE
Organized labor divided after
Amazon pulls out of Queens
By Bill Parry
Times Ledger
Unions representing thousands of
workers across the city were split early
on about Amazon’s plan for Long Island
City — but were united in lament
after the retail giant derailed their proposal
last week.
When Amazon’s anti-union policies
were exposed during a Council oversight
committee hearing last month after a
company executive, Brian Huseman, told
Queens Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer
that he could not support labor neutrality
for workers in Long Island City, the
gallery exploded in protest.
But outside City Hall, construction
workers and labor unions rallied in support
of the deal that the state and city
struck with Amazon to build its HQ2
campus and create 25,000 jobs over 10
years, with a plan to grow to 40,000 over
15 years.
Local 32BJ of the Service Employees
International Union had carved out
a position that Amazon, which doesn’t
have a single unionized facility anywhere
in the country, might adopt a more
labor-neutral posture once it was established
in progressive and pro-union
New York City.
“Amazon’s new headquarters will be a
model for how organized labor can power
the next generation of U.S. companies
to greater success,” 32BJ SEIU Political
Director Alison Hirsh said during
the rally. “These new jobs and significant
neighborhood commitments will
help uplift Queens families and the city
as a whole.”
32BJ SEIU had already secured a commitment
from Amazon that would have
created thousands of permanent jobs and
good wages for cleaners and security
guards at the proposed HQ2 campus in
Long Island City and its leader, Hector
Figueroa, who had organized thousands
of airport workers during a years-long
campaign right here in Queens.
Save New York Jobs.
Buy American.
www.americanmanufacturing.org
Courtesy of 32BJ SEIU
Figueroa figured he could do the same
with Amazon’s headquarters in Long
Island City.
The day before Amazon walked away
from the project, four of its executives,
including Huseman, met with organized
labor leaders in Gov. Cuomo’s Manhattan
offices, where they worked out
a framework for a deal.
Stuart Appelbaum — the president
of the powerful Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union — had been
a fierce opponent of Amazon, and was
present along with the regional chapter
of the Teamsters and New York State’s
AFL-CIO. Appelbaum later said he was
“amazed” that Amazon owner Jeff Bezos
cancelled the HQ2 project.
“Rather than addressing the legitimate
concerns that have been raised
by many New Yorkers Amazon says
you do it our way or not at all, we
will not even consider the concerns
of New Yorkers,” RWDSU Director
of Communications Chelsea Connor
said. “That’s not what a responsible
business would do.”
When the deal collapsed, Figueroa
lamented the loss of union jobs, and the
potential for more.
“The news that Amazon has decided to
cancel its plans to build its second headquarters
in New York City is a disappointing
development for working people
in our city,” Figueroa said. “This is
a lost opportunity for Queens and New
York on many levels. Of course, the loss
of 25,000 direct jobs and many more indirect
ones as well as the billions in revenue
that the project was expected to
bring into our city is unfortunate.”
“For labor, however, this is also a
missed opportunity to engage one of
the largest companies in the world and
to create a pathway to union representation
for one of the largest groups of
predominantly non-union workers in
our country,” he added.
But Figueroa, who led the sevenyear
campaign in which airport workers
marched, held sit-ins and rallies, and
committed civil disobedience in their
fight for dignity and economic justice,
will continue to fight.
“As a labor union with members in
11 states and Washington D.C., 32BJ
will continue to advocate for family
sustaining, union jobs and our union
is committed to organizing with working
people in New York and other states
across the country,” Figueroa said. “We
remain supportive of the many efforts to
unionize workers in New York, where
Amazon will still have thousands of
yet-to-be unionized employees who
could benefit from union wages, benefits
and representation. Union jobs
remain the most effective pathway to
the middle class for working people
in America.”
32BJ SEIU president Hector
Figueroa hoped to unionize Amazon’s
HQ2 campus once it was
established, but the opportunity,
along with thousands of jobs, is
now gone.
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/www.rwdsu.org
/www.americanmanufacturing.org
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/www.rwdsu.org
/www.americanmanufacturing.org