Amazon Fired and Disparaged Him. Then He Started a Labor Union
Christian Smalls won the right to hold union elections at two Amazon facilities in Staten Island. Now he has to win.
Smalls in Staten Island: ‘I say what I say, and that’s what got me here.’
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergWhen a retail union targeted an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse in Alabama last year, organizers generally avoided provocation, holding rallies far from the facility and urging placard-carrying activists to stay off the company’s property.
Christian Smalls, an upstart labor leader hoping to unionize Amazon facilities in Staten Island, New York, has tossed that playbook. Over the past couple of years, Smalls has tweeted photos of Amazon consultants he deemed “union busters” and encouraged supporters to disrupt anti-union meetings inside the gigantic JFK8 warehouse. Meanwhile, he staked out the Amazon parking lot, handing out union literature, playing loud rap music and buttonholing workers as they came and went.