Amazon Union-Teamsters Pact Aims for United Push at Retail Giant

A pending merger between the Amazon Labor Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters promises to boost both unions’ campaigns against one of the world’s largest employers—if it happens at all.

The Teamsters announced this week they had moved to join forces with ALU, which represents the only unionized Amazon.com Inc. warehouse in the US on Staten Island, NY. The agreement—hashed out behind closed doors between Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and ALU President Christian Smalls—stunned unsuspecting workers.

Reformers in the new union said they will encourage workers at the Staten Island warehouse, known as JFK 8, to ratify the deal, promising an influx of cash and manpower to grow the union’s organizing capacity. They will need to convince a workforce of more than 8,000, however, some of whom remain skeptical about joining with an established union.

The arrangement will test whether distinct parts of the US labor movement—a 121-year-old institution known for its bare-knuckle tactics and a scrappy upstart that galvanized a new generation of workers with its prodigious online presence—can unite to take on one of the world’s most powerful companies.

In the four-page agreement between the two unions, obtained by Bloomberg Law and verified by another person who had reviewed it, the Teamsters pledge to provide financial backing to the new ALU local, as well as “organizing, research, strategic, communications, and legal support.”

The Teamsters also agreed to fund an internal officer elections for ALU, carrying out a court-brokered pact to end an ugly internal feud that has consumed the union.

National Ambitions

In a statement posted on X, the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus—which is running a slate of candidates in opposition to Smalls—said the Teamsters’ announcement was “somewhat premature,” but needed to transform their young union into a “militant, autonomous local” that could serve as a lodestar for warehouses nationwide.

“JFK alone just doesn’t have enough leverage,” Connor Spence, an ALU reformer who’s running to succeed Smalls as president, said in an interview. “Launching that kind of national campaign as an independent union is really a long shot.”

The Teamsters have been working to use their members at UPS as a springboard to organize Amazon delivery operations, and eventually whole warehouses. Under a contract ratified last year, full-time UPS drivers make an average top rate of $49 an hour.

“Being able to work in concert with UPS drivers and workers, that all makes it a lot more possible,” Spence added.

Smalls told Bloomberg Law that the strategy shouldn’t rest on organizing individual warehouses like JFK 8, but rather a coordinated show of force to disrupt Amazon’s supply chain.

The objective “is to get this contract and get the bargaining unit order by any means necessary,” Smalls said. “The Teamsters are just going to add more strength to this power, and hopefully we’ll be authorizing a strike nationwide very soon.”

A representative for Amazon didn‘t respond to a request for comment.

New Momentum

ALU won an unexpected victory in 2022 on Staten Island, becoming a high water mark of the post-pandemic resurgence of the US labor movement punctuated by bursts of worker activism at Kellogg’s, John Deere, Apple, and other large companies.

But the union’s momentum has ebbed over the past two years. It lost two other elections, and hasn’t been able to reach a first contract with Amazon, much less counter the company’s scorched-earth legal campaign. Far from recognizing the union, Amazon has contested the group’s victory and argued that the 88-year-old National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional.

The ALU’s victory as an independent union was unusual in the first place, and it has since been operating on a shoestring budget with virtually no dues-paying members. The group had just $33,154 in cash and assets at the end of 2023 and at the same time spent $737,000, mostly on on representational activities and operational costs, according to an annual disclosure filed with the US Labor Department.

It ended the year with -$48,000 in net assets, documents show.

The group survived largely on donations, according to the disclosures, including $425,000 from the International Commission for Labor Rights, a New-York based nonprofit that coordinates pro bono legal work to advance workers’ rights.

The group also has relied on pro bono help from attorneys since its early days, said Seth Goldstein, partner at union-side firm Julien, Mirer, Singla and Goldstein PLLC, who volunteered his services. But the work has slowed now that many of the key issues are before the NLRB, he said.

“Legally, I think we’re fine, but definitely the way to the bargaining table is to put pressure on Amazon,” he said. The merger “creates a synergy that will in incredible for nationwide organizing,” he added.

The Teamsters—one of the largest unions in the US with 1.3 million members and a strike fund of more than $300 million—could help professionalize the ALU operations, supporters and outside observers said.

“You need resources and experience,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “The local union dues, just their dues alone, will not be able to purchase that kind of support.”

Deal Takes Shape

The secret talks unfolded last month at the Teamsters headquarters in Washington, where Smalls and a delegation of about 15 ALU members—including Spence and other members of the reform caucus—heard O’Brien’s pitch for joining the union. Parts of O’Brien’s vision differed from what he had in mind, but overall they found the exchange to be informative, Spence said.

“There was no agreement at that time; it was merely a discussion,” he said. “We didn’t even know an agreement was being made until we received the signed version of it.”

The agreement has already been ratified by the Teamsters executive board, leaving it up to ALU members to make the final decision.

O’Brien said in a statement June 5 that the partnered unions would force a contract at JFK8, expand organizing, and dismantle Amazon’s network of contracted delivery drivers that he said allows the company to evade legal responsibility.

“Building relationships with workers, communities nationwide, and rank-and-file Teamsters has been essential to creating the capacity to stand up to Amazon—and this affiliation demonstrates it,” O’Brien said. “It will require unprecedented unity and long-term investment to finally force this company to respect working people and fairly negotiate.”