An Apple Store worker is the face of labor reform in the US

The First Union: A Memoir of Two Warehouse Workers Against the Staten Island Voting Siege and the Rise and Fall of Amazon

The union got its first hint of the struggle after the Staten Island victory. The union would be in hearings into the summer because of Amazon’s objections to the election result. The company soundly defeated the union in an election at a warehouse across the street the next month, and later restricted off-duty employees’ access to break rooms, which organizers had relied on to recruit co-workers. The change was made so that employee safety and building security could be ensured.

The rumors about the working conditions of Amazon were true. She witnessed high turnover, injuries, and sign telling workers not to work for Covid. She says there’s no excuses for defiance of state law. Ambulances are a common sight outside the warehouse, Goodall says, and one once came for her after her heart condition flared up while on shift. “When you see it on a daily or weekly basis, it becomes normalized, and people stop questioning it,” she says.

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. It may contain errors as it has been reviewed by humans. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions, or you can review the episode audio first.

It is Michael. The daily revisits some of our favorite episodes of the year and learns what has changed in the time since they first ran. Today, we return to the story of how two friends and fellow warehouse workers, Chris Smalls and Derrick Palmer, beat the odds to form Amazon’s first union and learn the current state of their organizing efforts. The day is Tuesday, December 27.

Amazon and JFK8: How did you come to Amazon and where did you get your Amazon facilities? A question for York and Derrick

I’m really grateful — because I know you guys are in the middle of what is perhaps the biggest moment of your lives — that you made time to talk to us.

Thank you for that. Thank you, really, very much. So Chris and Derrick, I want to start by asking you both about how you came to Amazon and to the JFK8 warehouse in the first place. What brought you there as well?

I have been employed by Amazon since 2015. I opened up three Amazon facilities when I was promoted to process assistant and I was an entry-level worker.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

New York amazon-union: a twenty-five minute commute a day after opening the new JFK building, and I wasn’t a PA

Right, right. At this time, I was already a PA for over four years, trained hundreds of the employees, trained management as well that was hired within the company. And so I applied to relocate to JFK, which it didn’t open yet. The building was still under construction. So that was my plan to get into that building upon launch.

And I knew, as having seniority, I should be able to pick my shift and the days and times that I was supposed to work, especially opening up a new building. I didn’t get that chance. They threw me right on to the worst shift, which is 12-hour RT shifts.

My entire weekend was taken away by 12 hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I was in New Jersey and did not own a vehicle at the time. So my commute was two and a half hours, three hours each way.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

The Business Model of Amazon: Getting Employees to Work in the Presence of Uncertainty and Disturbing the Pandemic

Oh, I mean, at the time, you know, I was unemployed. I did a lot of temp jobs. I would not be at Amazon if it weren’t for my mother. So my mother —

Yeah. She said she was a fan of Amazon. I did not know a lot about it at the time. I knew that a lot of people were interested in the jobs at Amazon. You know what, I said. Let me just try it out and see what happens.

So I thought that Amazon was having worker’s best interest. It was like, all right, if you work hard, you move up. So immediately I adapted that philosophy. I worked as hard as I could.

Yeah. That’s — in my mind, I was like, you know what? I’m going to move up with this company. I’m going to excel because Amazon is such a big name. So, unfortunately, it didn’t go that way.

I didn’t know at the time. I thought that I would be able to get promoted because I was working hard. I was offered an ambassador position. Ambassador are workers who train other workers. It was my responsibility to train the new employees when they were hired.

And then the management jobs in the warehouse or the corporate jobs in Seattle — those were totally separate. And rather than promote people from the warehouse jobs, those jobs he wanted to hire college graduates for. This experience is not unusual, but it is part of the whole business model of Amazon.

Well, here you have this massive warehouse. It serves a huge market. It’s serving New York City. As the Pandemic shuts down everything, Amazon is seeing people want and need their services. In the midst of fear and uncertainty, when American citizens going home are not certain, Amazon is trying to figure out how to get its employees to work.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

What I didn’t Know Before I Left the Building, or What I Wanted to Do About It: Seeing what I had to do

Well, it was just the fact that we were in the dark. We didn’t know what the hell we was doing, what was going on with the virus because we’re watching it on the news, and the company is doing something else.

Something was off in the building, something off with the managers, and so on. And I’m like, what the hell is going on here? We’re in the break room sitting shoulder-to-shoulder. Derrick can tell you. We were sitting there joking, we’re all going to die because we’re sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, and we’re watching CNN, and they’re telling us we need to be six feet apart with masks.

I was scared the same way. I’m like, the energy in the building was just like, everyone was quiet, and no one knew what the next steps were. And we didn’t know what Amazon’s plans were. The energy that was going on was at that time.

A lot of workers were scared to speak out after Chris was fired. If I’m in the building, I’m going to show Amazon that I’m not going to give up. And I knew that they can’t — if they do something about it, then it is what it is. But I’m going to go out with a fight.

I was applying pressure on HR. I would visit there every day until March 24 when I got to work. And one of the supervisors that worked the front half of the week, she was walking around sluggish. She had her own mask.

I looked at her and wondered what was happening. What are you doing? She was not sure if she felt good. I went to go get tested yesterday. I said, hold on for a second. You got a test? Is it possible that they tested you?

Right. So I’m like, wait a second. I was watching the news. And obviously, they said in order to get the test, you had to be showing severe symptoms — bloodshot eyes, rosy cheeks. She was showing all of them symptoms.

So I said, you probably need to go home, as a friend and a colleague. She did. She went home. I will take care of your assignments. All your engagements will be done by me. She has been there for a long time and worked around hundreds of people for several days in a row.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

Derrick and me and the media, and I was like, oh, yeah. I’m going out of the building, I know it was going to be closed

I was wondering if I was crazy. Like, you, it’s — I’m leaving. I am leaving and going back to my house. I went downstairs to work with him because I ride with him. It was noon. We need to leave, I said.

So the next day, I came back to work, and Derrick came with me. We went straight into the break room at 7:00, 7:15. We need to do something at the top of our lungs. We all just wanted the building to be closed and cleaned.

You are asking for a building shut down because people have tested positive for the H1N1 virus while working in the warehouse. That is your request.

Yeah. We just wanted to be closed for 14 days incubation period, cleaned, and we would have came back to work. And we probably wouldn’t be sitting here today.

Yeah, Kentucky did a walkout and their governor closed their warehouse. And I saw that in the article. I want to know why the hell we can’t get that. So that’s when I said, “let’s plan a walk out here.”

The media began to call. And I am sure that it is all right. It’s all right. I’m picking up, telling them, like, yeah, at noon, March 30, it’s going down. And I just kept telling the media that over and over. We are planning a walk out. How many people? And I knew the media wasn’t going to come if I would have said five people.

Oh, wow. On the day of the walkout, we got up real early because — I don’t even think I slept the night before. I think I was like Slim Shady mom’s spaghetti and my stomach was turning. Derrick came to get me. It was like we was going across the bridge, and I’m, like — in my head, I’m like, damn, we’re about to do something, and I don’t even know what it’s going to look like.

I have no idea what’s going to happen. Yeah. All these emotions are going through. And we get to the building. When we saw the helicopter, I knew it was real. And we saw a row of media vans. I am like, oh, shit. Yo, look what we did.

I saw 60 workers, 50 workers, 100 workers come out. There is a small group of people holding signs in the parking lot.

The workers demanded the facility be closed for two weeks and cleaned after the coronavirus is gone. They’re also asking for —

The official explanation from Amazon has always been that Chris was violating the quarks. However, I’m going to read you text messages that were sent between two Amazon HR officials on the same day Chris was fired. They are saying things like, come on. They were social less than what was requested. There was a peaceful protest. His right to organize is protected. This is going to be perceived as retaliation — not a good look.”

So because you’ve held this walkout, you’ve been fired. This email has gone out about you that’s pretty derogatory. What will happen next? What are you going to do?

At that moment, that’s when we decide to continue to advocate for workers. We founded an organization — the Congress of Essential Workers. I told you, you know what. We need to form something that will bring us all together, like a coalition. We formed this organization.

We traveled the country starting in New York at the mansions and mansions of Jeff Bezos. We could not find all of them. We missed a few. We missed the one in Miami, but we started in New York. We went to DC. And then we went to Beverly Hills. Then we went to Seattle. And then we — at that time, that’s when they started to unionize in Bessemer.

Well, it is important to note, it seems like Chris and Derrick did not have much of an impact on the race. They had had this initial burst of publicity around Chris’s firing and the walkout, but that had really faded at this point. The company has the upper hand.

They’re offering health care on day one and really solid wages. The idea that this small group of workers are going to be able to challenge the business in the midst of all this seems very unlikely. Chris says that comes after.

I was in favor of it 100 percent. We decided to drive 16 hours down there because I supported it so much. And I thought that would be helpful to their efforts. We want to do this in the Alabama way. I said, whatever that means. What’s the Alabama way? I don’t know. I know the reason why they didn’t allow us to rally. They didn’t want to talk to us. They told us, like, we don’t really want you to talk to the workers because it’s going to intimidate them even more because you got fired.

It was frustrating because if you’re an organizer, his story is a gold mine if you’re talking to workers and convincing them why they need a union. So I felt like it was like, oh, you guys from New York, y’all can leave. We don’t need anyone to help us.

It sounds like, Chris and Derrick, Jodi, you’re all saying a version of the same thing. Chris and Derrick, what you saw was organizers not really connecting with the workers — organizers from a big national union — and that they were taking a top-down approach. It just didn’t work, as you say that it is a pretty conventional, traditional, old-school approach.

Right. And the reason this matters — and correct me if I’m wrong, Jodi — is that when it comes to a union vote in a place like Bessemer, every single worker’s vote counts.

Absolutely. They were using a more conventional model. The Retail Workers Union was a large union. I think there is a question of how much of this was coming from the Amazon workers inside the warehouse. Not all of it was.

Yeah. The main reason for me was going down there and seeing how Bessemer handled their campaign — the fact that they weren’t engaging with these workers was a red flag, so —

It’s got it. This has been a big moment for unions. In addition to that, there have been several other companies that have been supporting unions because of your contribution. Starbucks comes to mind but also Apple, Chipotle, Trader Joe’s, the retailer REI.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

New York Azagons: New York’s New Union after the Alabama Experience in High-Energy Busino, New York

We didn’t hesitate. At the time, there were a few people on my team who were telling us that we should wait. They wanted to study her. They wanted to study all of these expertise. And they did. We signed up for the courses. I never got a chance to take them. You know, Derrick was working.

So I said, let’s go while the Iron is hot. And also, I thought in my head, I said, how the hell are we going to listen to expertise when this has never been done before? We are the experts. We invested in the company. We know what’s going on at the company.

Alright. Chris and Derrick, you get back to New York after your experience in Alabama. Tell us about how you go about trying to build your own union from scratch.

We did not have a strategy, we did not know what to do. We went to walmart, picked up two tables, four chairs and a tent, and spent $150 on GoFundMe, even though we didn’t have a lot of money. And we went out to JFK8, and we said, all right, let’s stay here by the bus stop. We found that spot.

It wasn’t anything in the beginning. I was out there by myself. I would put the whole setup together by myself and sit out there for hours on hot summer days.

Just waiting for workers to get off the bus. And I would just catch them. I wanted to get as many people as possible. We didn’t know what we were doing. We were just like, yo, I need you to sign up. We’re going to form a union. We did not have a lot to offer. We only had a pamphlet and authorization cards. That’s it.

Yes. They’re the first step towards forming a union. You need enough cards signed from workers to show that you have enough support to even trigger an election. Once you get enough signatures — typically it’s 30 percent —

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

“What’s going on” in the ALU building: What kind of workers are you talking about, and how did you realize that?” [CHUCKLES]

That’s interesting because it strikes me that’s the second time that Amazon’s handling of you seems to really play a key role in your understanding of how this all plays out.

Yes. The TCOEW shirt tells you about the congress of essential workers. So I’m wearing it throughout the building. I’m letting Amazon know that my stance is mine, and then I’ll switch to another stance. I am going to keep working. And I’m going to be like the voice of the associates in the inside of the facility.

They’re saying do not talk to the ALU members. They’re a group of workers with no experience as far as having a union. They were saying, oh, you will have to pay dues [CHUCKLES]: if you sign this card. They were just saying bad things about us.

But me being organized and me being an insider, that’s my job to ease the tension and let them know that, look, you sign this authorization card. There is no penalty for signing the card. We just need to gather support so that we can have an election so that we can have a union. Every day — I’ll be talking to workers every single day. I’d go and talk to Chris if they decided to sign the card inside the building. And it worked, that’s all.

I had an outside game. They had the inside game. In the course of a day, shift change, we were about to see hundreds of people getting on and off the bus. But then it came to a point where we done signed them all up already. We had to change our strategy because we asked the same people, so we did not have to sign it.

We were just focusing more on days. Now it’s all right, we have to do the overnight. The team needs to come later in the morning so we can get the night shift. And night shift was lovely. We had nights on lock from the moment we started. People love the fact that we was out there setting up bonfires and —

We were cooking s’mores. We were singing guitar, acoustic music, and playing music. And it just felt like we built a little community right there, right at the bus stop. Sometimes we were out there crying, holding hands, and singing. It was just like a real — you can’t explain the emotions that were going on. It was spiritual.

I knew that this would work when I saw that. We were like a glimmer of hope for these workers because when they got out of the bus, if we wasn’t there, they were like, yo, where was y’all?

And then think about it — how we were saying we went to Bessemer, and they weren’t engaging with the workers. We needed to make sure we did that consistently.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

New York Astronomical Union – Where are we? Where have we come from? Where do we go? How do we need to be? Where we are going?

I heard that some of the people I know signed up because they were here for the last year. We did what we had to. We all sacrificed our personal lives. Amazon’s 24/7 — so I would tell my team that every time we’re not there, we’re losing. The two of them have to be out there. You have to be there no matter what you are doing.

We would have an alarm set on our phone so that we wouldn’t be late for work. Workers seeing us there consistently helped ease the tension.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

The Union of Automobile Workers (UAW) grew out of a building and a worker who walked into the building. A worker who went to the hospital had a broken election

We were giving away marijuana. We was giving out books. The items we gave out were clothing items. We were helping workers just — we were paying for people’s Ubers. One time a worker came out with high blood pressure. He had to go to the hospital, he needed $100 to do that. Amazon refused to pay for it. They ordered him to ride the bus home. Whatever it took to get even one person, we were doing it. We signed the national agreement. That was in December. We switched up our strategy again.

Sure. So this is a really important thing that happens. They are able to organize inside the building thanks to a landmark settlement from the National Labor Relations Board. So now the team is spending hours and hours a day in the break room. And there’s one particular day when Chris himself comes up to the building to deliver food to the workers inside.

Trust me. For them to see me get arrested for giving them food — the people that were undecided or on the fence about the union, they was, like, full-on we with y’all. The turning point was that. They lost the election right there.

The auto workers who formed the United Auto Workers in the 1930s are the only ones who have had an example of it with a company like this.

Is that a bad thing? York Amazon Lawyers in the Front of a Bus Stop – I saluted the Cameras

Amazon has six lawyers who make multi-billions of dollars and we have one pro-bono lawyer. And then we sit in the front. Two people are allowed. One on each side get to sit at the table in front of the ballot count.

Four or five board agents are present. Some of them are opening the ballots and getting them ready to be read. One person is reading them. The other two are having a count of them. It is from right to left. They’re sliding — and we’re sitting in front of this small table, and we’re watching them say yes or no.

They are not coming back from the 300, 400 we were up in the last two boxes. I was like, oh, there was too box — I was looking back at my team, looking back over their shoulder, and I was — we good.

Yeah. I saluted the cameras. I wanted them to stop being nervous. We have this. I am not going to lie. Several members of my team thought we lost too. I ain’t gonna call them out —

Even though I was at the bus stop, I still was reading articles and looking at quotes from experts and people who didn’t know what was going on. We are out here. Y’all are able to say what they want. I was aware of what we were doing. And I was like, they have no idea.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

The New York Amazon Labor Union: Twenty-Eight Months After the First Voting Break and About the Status of the New York Labor Union

We got a worker’s budget and sometimes no budget. Our campaign was built on love and care for one another. That is it. Over 50 buildings were contacted by us, some in different states.

People should know me in a few months. We are fighters. It is one thing for sure. We are fighters. We’re going to get a contract whether they like it or not. And whatever way, by any means, whatever it takes, we’ll get it done.

After the break, I called up Derrick once again to find out where things stand with the Amazon Labor Union since it first formed in April. We’ll be right back.

So it’s been about eight months since we last spoke. You and Chris were talking to us when we left off about how you got this union vote. I mean, it was historic and huge. But as you acknowledged at the time, it was just the beginning of a very long process. So catch us up on the major developments that have happened since then.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

New York amazon union: where do we stand? Where do we go? Where are we going? What can we do about it?

Well, we’ve been basically trying to get other campaigns going at different facilities. One campaign was at LDJ5 in Staten Island, which is directly across the street from JFK8. Also, ALB1 — that’s in Albany, New York.

No. Some buildings have started their campaigns. ONT8 in the Valley of California, San Bernardino — they have their campaign going there. The way it looks, it seems like they will be able to file the petition for an election soon. We want to get enough signatures before we file. So we want to build up as much support there to guarantee that the workers will vote yes when it’s time to vote.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

New York Amazon Association: A Turn-Pivot in the Labor Movement: The Case for a New York-Amazon Union

It’s already happening. It is already starting. And I’m very optimistic about the future because I know that unionizing is the future, not just for Amazon but other tech companies as well across the world. So this is just a turning point in the labor movement.

I mean, it’s not sad. Because we got to really understand what’s happening. You got to understand the dynamics. The Starbucks stores have about 20 people. We have thousands of workers and we need to get 30 percent of them to sign authorization cards to get to an election, compared to 30 percent for the National Labor Relations Board process.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

New York amazon union: What have you learned in working at the bus stop during the protests of Chris and the other workers?

Well, right now, we have to get our certification to even bargain. So that’s number one, and that should be coming before the new year. So once we get that, we’re going to put in an immediate bargaining order with Amazon to negotiate. That is also a process. Amazon could file an appeal.

Chris left the company, we know from our conversation. He said that he was forced to leave. You still work there at the same warehouse where you guys unionized. So what has it been like there for you as a worker?

Oh, yes. Yeah. The bus stop on public ground was the place where I and other organizers handed out union literature to workers. There was a conflict between one of the organizers and one of the workers. I was suspended from work because of the incident that took place that week.

My pay was going to be suspended for seven days. The seven day period was up as of yesterday, which was my birthday. They decided to continue the suspension for two more weeks. I have to return to work on the 28th of December, pending the investigation.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/podcasts/the-daily/new-york-amazon-union.html

The Daily on The Future of MARION LO SPANO and The Daily (With Revised Subtitles by Michael Nguyen, Martin Dicicco and Michael Maing)

Interesting. So sketch the future out for me for just a moment. We will be talking to you in a year. What do you hope will look like?

We will have a contract by 2024. That is the goal. Other facilities will be unionized as well. And that’s just what’s going to happen.

Today’s episode was produced by Diana Nguyen and Mooj Zadie, with help from Clare Toeniskoetter and Kaitlin Roberts. It was edited by Lisa Tobin, Michael Benoist and John Ketchum, and contains original music from Dan Powell and MARION LO SPANO.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Karen Weise, Martin Dicicco and Steve Maing are very deserving recipients. That is the last page for The Daily. I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

Labor Unions are Leading the Way in Bringing in a New Generation of Workers: Why Their Pays and Benefits Have Amounted to Theirs

There have been unions at coffeehouses, universities and companies that have long positioned themselves as progressive that have brought in a new generation of workers. Whether they stay will likely depend on their career prospects in other fields and how they fare in collective bargaining.

Some factors help explain the rise. Public support for unions is at a 60-year high (more on that below). And Starbucks played an outsized role in driving up that number. Starbucks accounted for 25% of the union elections this year, and the union won four out of every five elections.

Several notable unions this year included graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, health care workers at Kaiser or other hospitals and auto workers at the Ultium Cells plant in Ohio.

The company and the union have been at odds over tactics used to discourage further unionization, while the union has been accused of illegally recording and broadcasting bargaining sessions. The other side blamed the other for not giving in to their demands.

It is very slow and delicate to negotiate a collective-bargaining contract to increase pay and other benefits for unionized workers.

This year’s wages increased over last year. With far more openings than available workers, wages grew even faster at some of the lowest-paying jobs. But adjusting for 7% inflation, overall wages actually declined, and many workers felt like they were losing ground.

Rail workers won’t get everything they want out of the talks with the freight railroads, but they will get a 7% raise in 2022, along with cash bonuses every year for the next two years.

The food service workers at the San Francisco International Airport went on strike for three days last September, but after two years they got a 30% wage increase. Wages are going to go from $17 an hour to $22 by the year 2024. There was a one-time bonus, health insurance, and retirement included in the deal.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/27/1145090566/labor-unions-organizing-elections-worker-rights-wages

The Apple case: What the decision to fire Amazon on LDJ5 and JFK8 was about: When did the board of an Apple store decide that it was illegal?

About 10% of U.S. workers are members of a union, but only 32% of Americans approve of it. That’s a level of support not seen since 1965.

Those traditional remedies include Amazon having to stop discriminatory enforcement of its solicitation rules and threatening to withhold raises and benefits, along with any other violations of employees’ legally protected rights. The company will also be required to post conspicuous notices informing workers of their rights at both JFK8 and LDJ5, something it’s had to do before.

The judge dismissed some of the complaint, but that wasn’t the end of it. “We’re glad that the judge dismissed 19 — nearly all — of the allegations in this case and correctly called the 3 remaining ones ‘not obvious or clear cut,’” said Mary Kate Paradis, a spokesperson for the company, in a statement to The Verge.

The judge made the “not obvious or clear cut” statement in the section of the decision dedicated to the consequences Amazon will face for engaging in unfair labor practices. Here is the quote in context.

The General Counsel has requested certain atypical remedies, including a notice reading and supervisor training by a Board agent. I deny these requests. I have not found many unfair labor practices and some of them were not clear cut. Accordingly, I find that the Board’s traditional remedies are sufficient to effectuate the policies of the Act in this matter.

If the board issues a complaint against the company, it won’t be the first — last year, it said that the company illegally threatened, surveilled, and interrogated union organizers in New York. The determination at LDJ5 hasn’t been said to be an election redo like it was in Alabama.

The Apple goal was to make it hard for employees to vote to unionize. Is it legal to use its method? Ambiguous. A key US official and union activists have described what Apple and many employers regard as informational lunch ‘n learns’ as captive audience meetings that are illegal. “It was just like six weeks of solid union-busting roundtables, which were scheduled throughout the day,” Civick says. She says the customer queue at the store was long in the meantime.

“For me and a lot of my other coworkers, it was the worst six weeks to work at Apple,” says the five-year veteran—a particularly notable comparison at a store where she and other workers complain they have sometimes been made to clean up leaking sewage.

Civick is working with members of Congress to pass a law that would prohibit companies from using tactics similar to those used by Apple in Oklahoma City. It would ban bosses from forcing workers to listen to anti-union spiels, along with other legal changes that help unionization campaigns.

The Protecting the Right to Organize Act has passed the House of Representatives twice since 2020, but the Senate has failed to advance the measure. Civick spoke today alongside Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and other lawmakers at a press conference marking the reintroduction of the proposal. The bill is sponsored by Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican.

Schumer said that the PRO Act is more than just labor reform. Women, people of color, immigrants and the LGBTQ community are all given power by this legislation.

A spokesman for the Suppressed Repression of the Reionization Reaction by Minority-Faced Minority Workers

Mr. Smalls said that the revolt was an attempted coup and that the dissidents were mostly white and Black. Ruel Mohan, a mixed race worker who is one of the critics said that he did not believe that race was involved in the rift.

At a tense union meeting in December, Mr. Smalls warned organizers to step aside if they didn’t get along with him or those loyal to him. Do you have a problem with me? Deuces,” he said, using a slang term for “goodbye.” The two warring groups have been operating on their own.