At Amazon, arrests are a union-busting tactic.
Sultana Hossain, the Recording Secretary of Amazon Labor Union-IBT Local 1 in Staten Island, the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the US, just returned to NYC from a court date in Garner, NC.
The charge against Sultana? Trespassing.
The alleged victim? Amazon.
Sultana was arrested for trespassing while at Amazon’s RDU1 facility to support another worker-led Amazon union, C.A.U.S.E., just before their election in February. Her charges were dismissed on Friday, but only after months of court dates, travel, meetings with lawyers–not to mention the emotional and mental toll.
Sultana beat Amazon’s charges. But that came at a great cost of time and money to herself and her union. For a company the size of Amazon, these fees are a drop in the bucket. But for a union still fighting for its first contract like ALU, they are significant.
Arrests As a Union-Busting Tactic At Amazon
Amazon points to loosely and selectively enforced rules to justify these arrests. But the truth is that their actions only serve to intimidate workers and deny them their rights under the NLRA.
Sultana’s case is just one of many instances where Amazon has called the local police on organizers engaged in protected activities like walking the picket line, flyering, and getting union cards signed. Organizers have even been arrested while giving out free food to their fellow workers.
Sultana is not alone. Amazon workers and organizers across the country have been arrested over the years. Just this past December, the police locked arms to disrupt picket lines, threatened mass arrests, and dragged an Amazon driver from his van and arrested him in Queens.
“A Culture Of Near-Carceral Obedience”
Amazon’s relationship with the police goes far beyond arrests during organizing drives or strikes. The police are involved with Amazon’s day-to-day business practices to the level where the relationship is the subject of serious academic research.
From a report from Rutgers University:
“Amazon’s engagement with local police helps to subdue workers and enforce an organizational culture of near-carceral obedience – what amounts to a ‘militarization’ of human resource functions…routine police surveillance combined with Amazon’s own internal surveillance via digital and other means has led some Black workers to describe the Amazon fulfillment center as a jail and/or a modern plantation that makes them feel like ‘slaves’. ‘It feels like we’re coming into prison, and they’re trying to make sure we don’t escape,’ said one worker. ‘It’s like we’re being watched… To me, [it’s like] you’ve got the slaves out there, and then they’re policing them.‘”
This is what the workers organizing Amazon are up against. Not just inhumane working conditions and the threat of retaliation from Amazon, but also police surveillance and the looming threat of arrest over simple, legally protected actions like walking a picket line.
Stand with Amazon Labor Union against retaliation, threats, and the use of arrests as a union-busting tactic. Make a donation today to fuel their fight for a safe and humane workplace and to help with the legal costs incurred by these retaliatory arrests.
In solidarity,
The Labor Force
Sources:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/arrested-amazon-strike-nypd
https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/News/Amazon_Policing_Power_Report.pdf
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