📸 Week of Action a HUGE success—Prime Time to Unionize Amazon!
By Workers Strike Back. Published July 21, 2023
Last week, Workers Strike Back organized a National Week of Action to support Amazon workers organizing around the country, and especially workers fighting for $30/hour at Amazon’s biggest Air Hub, KCVG in northern Kentucky.
In cities from coast to coast – Pittsburgh, New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, Cincinnati, and more – Workers Strike Back activists organized community tables, doorknocks, rallies, speakouts, and canvasses to talk to community members about how to get involved in the fight to unionize Amazon at KCVG and everywhere.
Workers Strike Back set an ambitious goal of raising $10,000 during the Week of Action to donate directly to KCVG workers’ union drive, as they fight for $30/hr and a union at the heart of Amazon’s logistics empire.
We are excited to announce that we smashed our $10,000 target. Hundreds of working people responded to the call and donated through emails, social media appeals, at rallies, and on the street. In total we raised $15,035, every penny of which will go to support the KCVG union drive.
We need to get organized to take on union busters like Amazon. Workers Strike Back is organizing in workplaces and on the streets to build an independent, fighting movement that can unionize Amazon everywhere and win things like $30/hour for all workers. Donate now!
Then check out this Week of Action recap video, with speeches from KCVG workers and Workers Strike Back activists in Seattle and northern Kentucky.
Amazon workers have faced brutal conditions in the lead-up to Amazon’s “Prime Days” and in their aftermath. Workers are forced into mandatory overtime (or Mandatory “Extra Time,” in Amazon’s parlance) to keep up with the huge influx of orders, and they have been denied paid time off.
In just two days, Amazon recorded record earnings of $12.7 billion. It was Amazon workers who made those billions of dollars, but it’s the wealthy executives and shareholders who will reap the profits.
It’s time to fight back. Amazon workers deserve $30/hour, 180 hours Paid Time Off, and a union.
That’s why Workers Strike Back organized the Prime Time to Unionize Amazon National Week of Action, in conjunction with Amazon workers at the KCVG Air Hub, who held a Union Rally & Family Day in northern Kentucky on July 15, to celebrate their hard work during Prime and get more organized to build their union.
We need a fighting workers’ movement based on solidarity to take on giants like Amazon.
Rank-and-file activists from dozens of unions participated in the Week of Action, from teachers to construction workers to bus drivers. Members of 19 different unions came out to the Union Rally & Family Day organized by KCVG workers in Kentucky. At the Workers Strike Back rally at Amazon HQ in Seattle, PCC grocery workers and UPS Teamsters spoke about their own upcoming contract battles, and how those fights are connected to the need to unionize Amazon, the second-biggest employer in the US.
Many rank-and-file union members have successfully organized in their unions to donate to the Amazon Labor Union campaign in Kentucky by passing resolutions at their union meetings.
Workers can’t rely on Democrats, Republicans, or the courts. We need to build an independent movement that can fight for what we need. This week of action showed what is possible when workers get organized and fight back. It’s exactly the kind of working class solidarity we need to take on Amazon and win.
Get involved in Workers Strike Back today. Become a monthly donor and watch for events in a city near you. Stay tuned as we announce the launch of our video broadcast On Strike, and as we start building chapters around the country.
