Chris Smalls has led protests against Amazon around the country - including in front of Jeff Bezos properties
When former Amazon worker Chris Smalls organised a small protest outside a massive Amazon warehouse in New York two years ago, he didn't intend to pick a years-long fight with one of the world's largest companies. He just wanted his team to be able to do their jobs safely.
"When the pandemic came, employees underneath me were getting sick," he says. "I realised that something was wrong."
Amazon fired him, citing quarantine violations. But his concerns caught the world's attention - an early sign of a much bigger labour battle brewing at the e-commerce giant.
In the following months, as its business surged thanks to the pandemic, Amazon faced accusations around the world that it neglected staff welfare - claims it denied.
In the US, the company now faces its most serious labour unrest in decades.
After walkouts and protests across the country, workers at three warehouses in New York and Alabama are deciding whether to join a labour union - which would be a first for Amazon in the US.
Mr Smalls is one of the leaders in the fight.
He says he's embracing a role the shopping giant set out in a leaked memo from 2020, which described Mr Smalls as "not smart or articulate" and argued that if he became "the face of the entire union/organising movement" it would help to undermine it.
Mr Smalls, who worked at Amazon for more than four years, starting as an entry-level worker before getting promoted, said he was blindsided by the memo, which some saw as racist, though Amazon told reporters at the time the author wasn't aware Mr Smalls was black.
"My whole life changed in one minute," the father-of-two says. "From there, I started to pretty much try to make them eat their words."
Former Amazon employee, Christian Smalls, stands with fellow demonstrators during a protest outside of an Amazon warehouse as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the Staten Island borough of New York U.S., May 1, 2020.
Chris Smalls at an early protest against Amazon in 2020
For 11 months, the 33-year-old and his team have staked out a spot opposite his former workplace, the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island, intercepting staff on their way home to make the case that they need a union to fight for them in negotiations with the e-commerce giant.
His team are seeking higher pay, longer breaks, more paid time off and paid medical leave, among other changes. They want to convince workers that a union will be a more effective way to raise complaints over rules like one that requires staff to work unscheduled overtime shifts.
Voting on the question began 25 March and the result will be announced in coming days. Amazon faces a second election at a smaller warehouse in the same industrial park next month.
Organisers say the stakes are nothing short of the future of the American worker, pointing to Amazon's rank as the second largest employer in the US.
"We need to take down Amazon. We need these workers to organise," says Derrick Palmer, who helped Mr Smalls organise his 2020 protest and was also disciplined (but not fired) by Amazon, which cited social distancing violations. "We need them to know they have the power."
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