On Monday, Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls joined the picket line in front of The New School University Center at 63 Fifth Ave.
In similar fashion to New York State Senator Jessica Ramos, who attended the picket last week, the crowd gathered around to hear Smalls speak through the megaphone he’d been handed.
“I would love to be here all day with y’all,” Smalls said. “But you know we’ve got a big fight to fight, that’s not just one enemy, we got a lot of enemies to fight at the same time but we’re all in the same struggle together.”
The New School part-time faculty, who are members of the ACT-UAW 7902 union, have been on strike for a fairer contract with the university since Nov. 16.
In March of 2020, Smalls led a walkout with Amazon and Instacart employees at the Staten Island warehouse, JFK8, in protest of the company’s COVID-19 policies. They demanded more sick leave, higher pay and better cleaning supplies for both the Amazon and Instacart facilities, according to NPR. During the start of the pandemic, they were viewed as essential workers, but were given very little personal protection equipment, while multiple people within the facility had been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.
Smalls was fired from Amazon on that same day, as the company claimed he had broken pandemic safety measures, NPR reported.
Smalls drew from his own experience as a union organizer to boost the New School picketers’ morale.
“Remind them that you guys are important! If we’re essential, that means we’re a necessity, they need us. There’s more of us than there is of them,” Smalls said, a chorus of cheers following in response.
Smalls became the ‘face’ of the Amazon employee walkout. Before the walk out was organized, the company had been forming a “reaction team,” according to The New York Times, which consisted of multiple departments studying union busting techniques.
For 11 months, Smalls and Derrick Palmer, who was also an employee at JFK8, worked together to create the Amazon Labor Union. While demonstrating, they raised money and gave away free food and marijuana outside of the very warehouse Smalls was fired from.
In April of this year, the workers voted “yes” to unionizing and Smalls became the leader of Amazon’s first worker union, according to CNBC. Amazon has subsequently doubled-up its attempts at union busting, including holding mandatory meetings for employees in other warehouses led by in-house staff about why they should vote against unionizing.Consultants have also called the union members “thugs” in recent months, according to Vox.
Some of Smalls’s last words to the gathered faculty, staff and students at the picket line regarded the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, a conference devoted to business, policy and culture.
“In two days, we got a lot of billions [billionaires] coming into town,” Smalls said. “They’re coming to our city to have a nice little panel uptown. I want y’all to stay right here and remind [the university administration]. In two days I’m gonna remind them that when y’all come to this town, y’all gonna meet labor.”
The summit will take place on Wednesday, and attendees will include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Former Vice President Mike Pence, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. In a recent press release, Smalls announced that the Amazon Labor Union would be protesting outside of the panel’s location.
The New School part-time faculty strike continues as the vote on the University’s “final” contract starts today.