The following is a news announcement the Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) released on December 23.

On that day, CAUSE filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) “requesting an election to become the first unionized Amazon facility in the South, and only the second in the United States.”

In a recent interview, CAUSE co-founder and vice president Mary Hill explained the history and stakes of the workers’ effort to unionize Amazon’s massive RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner, outside Raleigh, North Carolina. Hill noted that CAUSE started collecting signatures for the NLRB petition among  RDU1 workers on Labor Day. The RDU1 workforce is estimated at 4,000 to 5,000.

“Workers have signed in big numbers despite an illegal campaign of intimidation by Amazon, which is desperate to keep unions out to continue paying poverty wages and failing to improve dismal working conditions,” the press release below points out. “The trillion-dollar company has fired three union activists this year, including CAUSE president Reverend Ryan Brown.”

World-Outlook is publishing the news release that follows for the information of our readers. The headline and text below are taken from the original.

— World-Outlook editors

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NEWS RELEASE: AMAZON WORKERS FILE FOR UNION ELECTION AT GIANT NORTH CAROLINA FACILITY

December 23, 2024

Today worker-activists at the giant RDU1 warehouse in Garner, North Carolina, filed a petition with [the] National Labor Relations Board requesting an election to become the first unionized Amazon facility in the South, and only the second in the United States.

The worker-led Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) launched a massively successful campaign this fall to collect union authorization cards. The NLRB will hold an election once 30% of RDU1 workers have signed a card. Amazon has refused to disclose the number of employees at the facility, but CAUSE leaders believe they have easily exceeded the 30% threshold of authorization cards.

Workers have signed in big numbers despite an illegal campaign of intimidation by Amazon, which is desperate to keep unions out to continue paying poverty wages and failing to improve dismal working conditions. The trillion-dollar company has fired three union activists this year, including CAUSE president Reverend Ryan Brown as well as engaging [in] illegal intimidation, harassment, and surveillance of RDU1 workers.

Amazon called the Garner police three weeks ago to arrest three CAUSE activists providing workers with information and free food.

CAUSE has been working for three years to organize a union at RDU1.

“We are tired of being treated like we are fungible, of being disrespected, and struggling to put food on the table,” says Mary Hill, CAUSE co-founder and vice-president.

Even after a recent pay raise, RDU1 workers start at just $18 an hour with pay capped at $20.90 no matter for years of service. That’s less than half what MIT economists estimate as the minimum wage of $41.54 for an adult with a child in the Raleigh area.

Many RDU1 employees work 60-hour weeks and need second jobs to get by.

Workers receive just one paid half-hour break in a ten-and-a-half-hour day. They can be fired for failing to meet Amazon’s algorithmically driven scan rates. There is no trained medical staff on site despite an injury rate more than 70% higher than at non-Amazon warehouses.

“Amazon prioritizes profit over everything else, especially the well-being of workers,” says CAUSE president Brown, who had worked at RDU1 for three years before being fired by Amazon on December 3. “We all appreciate Amazon’s fast delivery, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of human suffering.”

RDU1 management has used anti-union video screen posts around the warehouse and so-called “captive audience” meetings where managers gather workers for pro-Amazon, anti-union propaganda talks.

Yet worker enthusiasm for the union remains strong as evidenced by how many have signed authorization cards.

CAUSE expects the NLRB to make an announcement soon about the election.

“Nothing moves without us,” says Mary Hill, the CAUSE co-founder. “We’re going to win the election. It’s time.”

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