While many people are familiar with the unionization campaign in Bessemer, Alabama, where Amazon workers are organizing with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), other campaigns are less well-known. One such effort is that of Amazonians United, a network of Amazon workers at warehouses and delivery stations across the country. Their approach is guided by a focus on long-term, deep organizing on the shop floor. If unions are what we call workers acting collectively, Amazonians United is certainly a union, but it’s not filing for National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections. Its focus is waging fights on the shop floor and building up strength there while coordinating across warehouses.

On a recent episode of Primer, Jacobin’s Alex N. Press spoke with two Amazonians United members: Jonathan Bailey and Ted Miin. Bailey is an Amazon worker in Queens, New York, and recently ran for city council. Miin is a member of Amazonians United Chicagoland and works at Chicago-area delivery stations. He is also one of the workers who filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) charge with the NLRB against Amazon last year after facing intimidation and disciplinary write-ups for taking part in walkouts over what he and his coworkers found to be inadequate COVID precautions. The NLRB found those charges to have merit.

In the following conversation, Bailey and Miin discuss Amazonians United’s origins, waging and winning fights against management on the shop floor, and the organization’s relationship to other unions. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.