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Amazon Colludes with NYPD to Arrest and Intimidate Workers

Amazon illegally busted the NYC union effort by firing and arresting pro-union workers.

Amazon is colluding with cops to union bust. At the company’s largest warehouse, JFK8 on Staten Island, Amazon has been working with NYPD to fire and arrest pro-union workers. Chris Smalls, an Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizer, was arrested and held in a prison cell for more than 6 hours after delivering food to his fellow organizers.

Workers say the arrests were used to scare, intimidate and punish workers from voting yes on unionization. A recent National Labor Relations Board ruling forced Amazon to agree to stop this practice of union-busting. In March, the National Labor Relations Board sued Amazon against the company’s “flagrant unfair labor practices.”

More Perfect Union spoke with arrested union leader Smalls and ALU lawyer Seth Goldstein about the company’s illegal anti-union actions. The Staten Island Amazon union vote began on March 25 and will run until March 30th. With results expected next week, Amazon faces a serious legal challenge.