For five years, Emancipate NC has held down defense of protesters, activists, and organizers in North Carolina. Our newest attorney, Dillon Sharpe, heads to court in Wake County next week, defending an Amazon worker and an organizer both charged with trespassing after Amazon called the police on its own people, as tensions escalate in the run-up to a historic union election.
The INDY Week covered the events at Amazon’s RDU campus in Garner, NC:
Voting began today in a union election at Amazon’s RDU1 warehouse in Garner that could make the sprawling facility the second unionized Amazon workplace in the United States.
Workers will vote through Saturday on whether to unionize under Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or C.A.U.S.E., which needs support from more than half of those who cast ballots to win (4,300 workers at the warehouse will be eligible to vote). If successful, the union would push for $30 hourly wages, hour-long paid lunch breaks, increased paid time off, consistent scheduling, and faster accommodations for injured workers.
The vote comes amid escalating tensions and allegations that Amazon has intensified its anti-union tactics in recent weeks. As Amazon has ramped up its anti-union campaign, organizers have fought back, setting up a camp outside the warehouse and rallying support from labor leaders nationwide—including veterans of the successful Staten Island union drive, whose visit ended in arrest on the eve of the election.