North Carolina Amazon workers collect cards, trigger union election

CAUSE leaders Rev. Ryan Brown and Mary Hill show their union cards in Sept. 2024. | Photo courtesy of CAUSE

GARNER, N.C.—A grassroots organization of Amazon workers, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE), is showing the world what workers can do. Over the past four months, they’ve succeeded in gathering well over the needed 30% of union authorization cards, triggering an NLRB union election at the RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner, N.C.

With the election underway, RDU1 has the opportunity to be the second Amazon facility to unionize after JFK8 in New York. Even getting this far is a historic win for workers in the South, where union density is the nation’s lowest. In North Carolina, only 2.7% of the workforce is unionized. But long odds and awful worker rights in North Carolina don’t scare C.A.U.S.E.

The development of CAUSE

In a short video posted on X, CAUSE President Rev. Ryan Brown remembers back to Jan. 7, 2022: “We were in the middle of the pandemic. I was asked to go to a part of the warehouse that was a hotspot, and I refused to go. I felt a divine tug on my heart to talk to Ms. Mary [CAUSE’s other co-founder], and we started from the bottom, and now we’re here, about to have an election, and it feels really good.”

Over the past three years, CAUSE has overcome obstacles so steep that anyone but them would have said “it’s impossible”: the huge size of the warehouse and workforce, rapid turnover, limited chances for worker-to-worker contact, ethnic and linguistic diversity, worker and organizer burnout, and misleading myths about unions that run rampant in Southern states.

Not to mention the precarious nature of employment in rural areas and Amazon’s relentless union-busting and anti-worker practices, which saw union leaders fired.

At the same time, the growing group had to navigate unmapped terrain: working with other organizations that wanted to help while maintaining its steadfast commitment to rank-and-file leadership and worker empowerment.

On Jan. 7, 2025, the third anniversary of its founding, C.A.U.S.E. signed a union election agreement with Amazon. The election will be held from Feb. 10 to 15 at the RDU1 warehouse. CAUSE needs a majority—50% plus 1—to win a union for all 4,300 workers in the bargaining unit.

In the X video, CAUSE co-founder Mary Hill notes, “We’re making history. And we’re on the right side of history.”

But progress doesn’t just happen. It takes work, Brown says. “Now, this happened three years ago, and nothing has changed about Amazon…. They’re still mistreating people…. So, if you see injustice, and you are determined, through hard work, you can accomplish anything. That’s what CAUSE is all about. We brought people together.”

Hill adds, “And that’s why you should vote…. UNION YES!”

Workers’ demands

On the CAUSE website, workers present three basic sets of demands, the product of hundreds of conversations among co-workers.

First, they want to be paid fairly; they’re tired of being exploited. “Amazon is one of the wealthiest corporations in the world. The hardworking associates who produced this wealth deserve a livable wage that meets today’s increased cost of living.” In Garner, this translates to $30 an hour, paid sick leave, a paid lunch hour, and peak season bonuses.

Second, they want better working conditions. Amazon’s rate of injury is, notoriously, twice as high as the industry average. As stated by CAUSE, “Amazon associates work long, grueling hours at hazardous speeds with very few breaks and no resources to address our resulting physical and mental health needs. Our well-being matters to us, and it should matter to Amazon, too.”

Third, they want a path toward a future that is fulfilling for Amazon’s workers, not just its customers and executives. From the beginning, CAUSE has embraced a social justice factor that goes beyond wages and safety. It includes addressing injustices, giving workers a voice, and making sure they are respected as whole people.

As CAUSE organizers put it, “We are working to build a promising future for Amazonians and their communities through engagement, education, and empowerment.”

These demands provide a glimpse of why the CAUSE union election is already an advance for workers in the region, even before the votes come in. No one knows what will happen when the RDU1 workers drop their ballots in the NLRB’s boxes, but over a thousand Southern workers have signed cards saying they want to be part of this worker-led union. The smart money says CAUSE can win.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Lorri Nandrea

Lorri Nandrea has worked as a waitress, barista, pizza cook, English professor, tutor, car wash cashier, punch press operator, gas station attendant, used and rare book dealer, editor, and writer, among other things.

John Oliver

John Oliver is a unionist reporting on and building labor solidarity across the southwest.