On the Loss at LDJ5 on Staten Island

Not long after Amazon Labor Union’s historic NLRB victory at JFK8, it was met with a defeat at LDJ5, with a vote count of 618 against the union to 380 in favor. For workers everywhere, this loss is just as important as the victory – if not more – as we draw lessons for the battles to come with Amazon and other employers. Any struggle waged against the capitalist class, no matter if it is a loss or a victory, is a source of knowledge for all workers. It is an opportunity to regroup and assess where things went wrong and, on that basis, prepare for the march ahead, clear-eyed and more unified than before. For this reason, we should not be afraid of struggle and debate within our ranks. What follows is not an appraisal of tactics adopted by ALU, but an attempt at clarifying some more fundamental points. 

All too often, the loss of an NLRB election is attributed to union-busting. This explanation is insufficient to explain the loss. For one, it assigns decisive power to the employer – in this case Amazon, treating it as a beast that is virtually impossible to conquer. But we all know from the victory at JFK8 that this is not true – that despite the lack of faith shown by labor “experts” early on in that campaign – with commentary arguing that workers should not even try because it might “deliver crushing blow to Amazon workers organizing nationwide” – that a lot is possible when workers rely on ourselves. Defeatism condemns workers to inaction and passivity. Moreover, it tells workers nothing about what could be changed in how workers approach their class tasks of reversing the asymmetry of their relation to the bosses. While union-busting no doubt plays a role in seeing off the threat of labor organizing, the assault brought on by employers should not come as a shock, as workers are bringing a fight against the employers themselves. More pay and benefits for workers means less profits for employers. More importantly, building an organization of workers to improve conditions of work transforms workers from isolated and helpless individuals into an organized force that can learn to systematically approach the struggle with the employer. Union-busting is therefore to be expected. 

How, then, should workers view NLRB elections? We must proceed from a basic fact: NLRB election results are a reflection of how strong workers in that shop are, and not vice-versa. All workers must come to learn, and those workers who have studied the historical battles of our class must never forget that NLRB election results, collective bargaining, and contracts are only the crown of victory in the struggle between workers and bosses. Unity among the ranks of workers, the strength of workers, and the struggle capacity of workers must be measured by the readiness of workers to successfully strike against the boss. Workers must ask ourselves: what types of discussions, activities, and ideas further strike-readiness and what types weaken it? Along the same lines, what kind of support would further strike-readiness? 

In recent weeks, the ALU leadership has raised harmful, reactionary demands, e.g., becoming shareholders, productivity bonuses, and creating an internal pipeline for managers. Demands like these instill illusions in individual workers and promote the idea of rising out of our class. Demands like these suggest that it is impossible to improve the conditions of our class as a whole and it is only possible to improve our individual situation when we are not part of it. Demands like these promote competition among workers. Demands like these weaken the ability of workers to fight. 

The workers of Amazon have shown with great courage that it is possible to fight. As it stands, the economic situation for workers is particularly grim. The price of food, transportation, and rent keeps climbing while real wages are too low to catch up. As the capitalist class continues to wage its offensive against the working class, what should be evident is this: struggles between capitalists and workers do not have to take the character of capitalists one-sidedly pummeling workers as they have done for the past decades. Workers should not and do not have to take it.