Help Amazon Workers Build A Global Movement

In June, The Labor Force community made it possible for nearly thirty Amazon workers to attend the largest convening of Amazon workers in history. They compared organizing notes and tactics, deepened their solidarity, and laid plans to take on Amazon and win.

Now, momentum is building and Amazon workers from all over are coming together to build a worldwide movement. Amazon’s reach spans the globe; so must the fight to hold this Goliath accountable.

Please read on for a message from Sultana Hossain of Amazon Labor Union, and if you can, please chip in to help Amazon workers attend the Amazon Workers International Convention in Germany this fall.

My name is Sultana Hossain, and I’m the Recording Secretary of Amazon Labor Union-IBT Local 1, which represents over 5,000 workers at JFK8 in Staten Island, New York, the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the United States.

I’m writing because eight Amazon workers from across the U.S. have an incredible opportunity to attend the Amazon Workers International Convention in Dortmund, Germany. This gathering will bring together Amazon workers from around the world to share organizing strategies, learn from one another’s victories and challenges, and strengthen our global movement. Amazon is one of the largest corporations on Earth. It operates across continents, and its executives coordinate globally. If workers are going to build enough power to challenge a company of that scale, we have to organize globally too.

Our delegation includes Amazon workers from New York City and the Hudson Valley, Chicago, Atlanta, and Sacramento. Together, we represent warehouses across the country where workers are organizing for safer workplaces, better wages, and a voice on the job.

The only thing standing in our way is the cost of airfare. We’re asking our community to help us cover our flights so that working-class organizers from Amazon have an opportunity to represent the U.S. labor movement on the international stage.

At the convention, we’ll exchange ideas with workers who have organized strikes, won collective bargaining agreements, challenged surveillance and unsafe working conditions, and built powerful worker organizations in their own countries. We’ll return home with practical organizing skills, new relationships, and a deeper understanding of how workers across borders can support one another. When we come back, we’ll share what we’ve learned with our coworkers and organizers throughout the United States. The lessons, strategies, and solidarity we gain won’t stay with just eight people; they’ll strengthen organizing efforts in warehouses across the country.

If you’re able, please consider making a contribution of any amount. Whether it’s $10, $25, $50, or more, every donation brings us one step closer to Dortmund and helps build a stronger international movement of Amazon workers. And if you can’t donate today, sharing this fundraiser with your friends, family, and networks is another powerful way to support us.

Amazon is a global corporation so our solidarity must be global too. Thank you for believing in workers and for helping us build an international movement powerful enough to transform one of the world’s largest employers.

In solidarity,
Sultana Hossain
Recording Secretary
Amazon Labor Union-IBT Local 1