Amazon Union Win in NYC Holds Potential to Spread Far and Wide

Two years ago Amazon.com Inc.’s general counsel suggested focusing public attention on fired employee and labor activist Christian Smalls because he “wasn’t smart or articulate.”

On Friday, Smalls led the fledgling union he founded to victory at one of Amazon’s New York warehouses -- a seismic event that could upend the relationship between Amazon and its workers as well as help revitalize the struggling U.S. labor movement.

After winning an election in Staten Island, Smalls celebrated his victory with a few choice words of his own. “Amazon tried to make it about me from day one,” he said. “It’s ...