A sting in the retail: How workers at Amazon are hitting back against their conditions

When Amazon employees at a warehouse in Staten Island managed to form a union in the face of ferocious opposition from the company, it was a development nobody saw coming. But it could prove to be a watershed moment in industrial relations in America – and wipe the smile off the logo of the world’s largest online retailer

It’s easy to forget that Amazon, with its virtual ubiquity in the real and online economy, its $1.5 trillion capitalisation, its founder’s mega-wealth, and its range of seemingly indispensable services, is a relatively new company. Picture: Getty

On the morning of Friday, March 30, 2020, Chris Smalls’s stomach was churning with anxiety. He was driving to work with his friend Derrick Palmer, across the Goethals Bridge which connects New Jersey to Staten Island, and he was agonising over what was about to happen.

Smalls had announced a walk-out over working conditions at his local Amazon fulfilment centre, the term used to described the enormous warehouses in which stock pickers race around for ...