People’s World traces its lineage to the Daily Worker newspaper, founded by communists,
socialists, union members, and other activists in Chicago in 1924, so when it reports approvingly on the union organizing activities at Amazon and even offers kudos to communist-affiliated organizers you know the Red connections are the real deal.
The Amazon Labor Union lost the vote at the company’s Staten Island warehouse, but won a landmark victory at the company’s JFK8 warehouse.
In a March 21, 2022 article bylined to Justine Medina, a co-chair of the New York Young Communist League and a member of the Amazon Labor Union organizing committee and New York-based writer Jacob Buckner, People’s World explained the contribution to unionizing Amazon’s New York warehouse the Communist Party is making.
According to Medina and Buckner:
Sam, one volunteer at a phone bank organized by the Young Communist League, told People’s World: “I’ve been amazed at the energy and enthusiasm of the workers we’ve called. So many workers are happy to be contacted by a union organizer or volunteer just to have a chance to talk and express themselves about their experiences and their working conditions. There are so many stories of accidents, unsafe working conditions, outrageous and potentially criminal treatment at the hands of management, especially during the COVID crisis.
“Workers at JFK8 are at a breaking point. So there’s a consistent, steady determination under the worst of conditions to vote for and stand by the ALU. There’s a growing excitement among workers, as the support is clearly shifting in the union’s favor. Workers are becoming more confident in speaking their minds and imagining what better working conditions would look like. Workers are calling back asking how to get involved in the organizing committee!”
Medina and Buckner claim ALU organized canvasses to go door-to-door and phone banks for volunteers, but also encouraged organizations to help set up their own phone banks in addition to other efforts such as fundraisers and “solidarity rallies.” In the month leading to the vote phone banking events were conducted on multiple days a week at the Communist Party headquarters as well as the UNITE HERE Local 100 office in Manhattan. CPUSA clubs across the country also mobilized for remote phone banking, with hundreds of Communist Party members “contributing their time to the ALU struggle.”
Led by the Democratic Socialist Party similar efforts have been targeting Starbucks across the county, with some success.
According to Reuters, workers at more than 50 U.S. Starbucks cafes have elected to join the Workers United union, while five stores voted against the union, out of roughly 240 altogether that have sought to hold elections since August. Starbucks told investors on Tuesday it will invest $1 billion in employees in this fiscal year and said by this summer its average U.S. pay will be $17 an hour, with starting wages to range from $15 to $23.
So, given the unapologetic Communist associations of the two organizing groups why would Vice President Harris and Labor Secretary Walsh meet with the Amazon Labor Union and Starbucks organizers yesterday?
The meeting included Christian Smalls, who heads the Amazon Labor Union, and other grassroots organizers from Starbucks/SEIU, United Paizo Workers/CWA, Baltimore Public Library/IAM, and a union that has organized workers at an outlet of REI, the outdoor goods retailer, a White House official said.
White House officials said Harris and organizers will discuss “extraordinary efforts to organize unions in their workplaces, and how their efforts can inspire workers across the country to make the choice to join or organize a union.”
Since 1955 there has been an 82% drop in private sector union membership, and Joe Biden made a commitment to Big Labor to do everything he can to turn that trend around, including setting up an administration taskforce on worker organizing.
Vice President Harris chairs that administration task force on worker organizing. Walsh, a former Boston mayor and union official, is the vice chair and along with their Boss, Joe Biden they have made assisting unions in regaining their lost hold on American workers – even if that means supporting and encouraging the growth of two Communist-affiliated unions.
Joe Biden administration
Amazon unions
Starbucks unions
Amazon Labor Union
JFK8
Communist Party
Democratic Socialist Party
Workers United Union
Vice President Harris
Labor Secretary Walsh