With Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse dealing with a vote to unionize subsequent month, police have arrested labor organizer Christian Smalls on the facility for allegedly trespassing, Reuters has reported. Two different people that reportedly labored on the facility had been additionally arrested, and Smalls was charged with resisting arrest and trespassing.
A former worker, Smalls stated that he was “literally a visitor” delivering meals to different workers, and that Amazon was attempting to “increase the intimidation factor” by way of his arrest. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel advised Reuters that Smalls “has repeatedly trespassed despite multiple warnings.”
The three arrests had been captured on video by Motherboard, which reported that the NYPD handcuffed the organizers who wore brilliant pink shirts with the slogans “Amazon Labor Union.” Smalls was fired in March 2020 after he led a protest outdoors the warehouse demanding higher security and well being protections.
A vote to unionize the Staten Island facility is about to begin on March twenty fifth, and a profitable one would make it the primary union Amazon warehouse. Another vote is about to be counted subsequent month from the identical Alabama warehouse that voted in opposition to unionizing.
After the primary Alabama vote, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) organizing it accused Amazon of violating the National Labor Relations Act. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) agreed and ordered a second vote in early February, with counting to begin on March twenty eighth.
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