In recent years, workers in the United States have gained new insights through their experience of the pandemic and through participating in the Justice for George Floyd movement. As a result, they have become increasingly conscious of how different modes of oppression are linked to one another under capitalism, as Ezra Brain recently described in “Social Justice Unionism: How ‘Generation U’ Is Building Class Solidarity.” At Amazon alone, immigrant workers and queer workers have played leading roles as union organizers with an eye toward how a union would protect them as oppressed people. Minnesota teachers and New York City professors have both called for anti-racist measures in their union contracts, and unions across the United States have signed on to statements in support of Palestine. But one axis of oppression that has received less attention in light of unionizing efforts is disability, in part because access barriers frequently keep disabled people out of the workforce. We can see this in practice through the stories of unionizing workers at Amazon.
On April 24, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) held a rally at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse complex in support of the workers at warehouse LDJ5, who were preparing to vote on whether to join the union. On that day alone, Left Voice spoke with two different workers who had been suspended by Amazon on account of their disabilities. One former worker, who had used up all of his paid time off while ill, had found another job after he was suspended and now works at a department store. The other, who still works at Amazon, is Joey.
