By: New Day at Amazon Editorial Board
[Editorial Note: The Partisan is republishing for our readers the newest edition of the class-conscious shop paper New Day at Amazon, entitled “History of Unionism at Amazon – Part One“. Tracing their analysis back to their beginnings as part of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), prior to its functional collapse and then affiliation to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), in this first part of a new multi-part series on union organizing at Amazon so far, the worker comrades outline how both ALU and a new semi-independent union CAUSE both failed to break with the modern state unionist practice of mainly relying on the imperialist State for recognition and legitimacy. For those interested in getting involved, showing their support, or sending their thoughts and questions please reach out directly to newdayatamz@proton.me or message The Partisan and we will direct you to NLOC and its Amazon affiliate]
A labor union isn’t a union just because it’s legally recognized; a labor union is a union when it is organized as such. It’s harmful to the workers’ movement and to the genuine trade union movement in this country to rely on the legal system for our recognition and power. Therefore power, or our ability to fight for our everyday needs such as wages, or our ability to strike and support certain causes cannot remain tied to legal systems that were put in place from the beginning to suppress us. Before New Day at Amazon was ever a reality, we tried to organize in a confused way. We tried to build our organization as a weapon for ourselves, but instead, we still organized as any state union would. A state union is a union that completely ties its’ success and therefore its’ existence to the legal system, leads to a complete betrayal of the need for independent working class organization. We based our strategy purely on the “contract fight” and legal battle. Putting ourselves at the mercy of our enemies. We simply had no long-term vision of our organization that could allow it to stand the test of time.
This seems to be the same trouble of CAUSE. CAUSE, or the Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, recently held a union vote at RDU1 in Raleigh, North Carolina. They sought they same strategy we once did. The whole thought behind the strategy is that organizing a vote for legal recognition means that they will have a legally recognized union and therefore will be “protected” under the law. We can see that many recently “legally recognized unions” (like Starbucks Workers United) employ this same strategy.
It is also obvious that this strategy does not guarantee a contract. On one hand not only does it not guarantee a contract, the ruling class, including Amazon, is trying to sue to strip the National Labor Relations Board of any power anyways. So not only are the contracts not guaranteed but they might not even be “protected” for the foreseeable future. With this in mind we can see how this is nothing but a failed strategy and not something we can bank on for the long term future.
Therefore CAUSE resorted to giving their organization up to the same class that works to exploit them every day. We have pointed out how Jeff Bezos influences, shapes, and controls our government. It’s nothing but an illusion if we think that this same government could have our backs today, tomorrow, or ever. When your starting point is capitulation and your basis for organization isn’t working class power and independence, you lost before you ever began.
And this is the exact case of our friends in CAUSE. When examining their organizational structure, they seemed willing to organize workers in large and robust committees. They even had their own shop papers. They preached and publicized certain values; a key one they valued is independence. That’s part of the reason they never aligned with the “Amazon Labor Union”. But does this mean that this principle was actually upheld in reality? No. At every step, their whole strategy relied too heavily upon the legal system. In no world where your enemy is in control of the government, do you tie yourself to that same government and expect to get what you want. In every shop paper, in every announcement, their end goal was a contract. That brings us to a question, however, and that is, what is the purpose of a contract?
The contract is nothing but a means to an end. Yes, a contract struggle is a correct one, and again, we believe it is right to fight for a contract. But at the end of the day, a contract is only a tactic, or a step towards a larger goal. A contract is only one avenue in which we fight for our everyday needs. It’s only one tactic we are employing to organize Amazon workers towards a revolutionary trade union. We can win demands even without a contract struggle. We win demands through collective struggle and action, namely the withholding of labor. The strike is the way we win not a vote.
We opened this multipart series with a brief analysis of the RDU1 union vote because we felt it important to highlight a recent “loss” that was highly publicized. We call on our friends within CAUSE to keep up their fight. We would love for them to organize regardless of legal outcome. Amazon workers want better wages and living conditions regardless of if it is “recognized” by the government. Let us not end the fight before it even starts. We will fight for a contract, but we will not give ourselves away to a government working to keep us poor and exploited. We must build a robust organization made up only of workers, with leadership directly elected by the workers, that fights and makes decisions for the workers! This is the only viable method for the our class and the union struggle at Amazon!
