1 min read

Season 3, Episode 174

Smalls: Maintaining independence critical to empowering young people

amazon labor union

 

Guest Name:


Chris Smalls

Guest Website:


www.amazonlaborunion.org

Guest Social Media:


Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

LinkedIn

Supportive Documents:


Chris Smalls, Founding President of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed how running an independent campaign proved critical to the ALU’s success in forming the first Amazon labor union in the U.S.

Smalls was one of the three high profile guests for AWF’s Special Labor Day Episode.

He maintained the ALU’s independent approach was best for its members because it celebrated their identity. Many people, especially the young, gravitated to the Union’s style and the way it organized, he said. The ALU is the face of today’s young generation and its independent identity inspires many young workers, he added.

Smalls shared his experience of testifying before Congress and being invited to the White House, but stressed he prefers grassroots organizing as a means of strengthening the labor movement and empowering workers. 

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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