Amazon union leader Christian Smalls went from rapper to unlikely voice of protest
The 33-year-old had worked at Walmart, Target and Home Depot. A rapper early in his career, he gave up music to support twin children, and by 2015, he took a warehouse job at Amazon in his home state of New Jersey, and later New York, he said.
In March 2020, the virus’s spread had alarmed workers at JFK8, the retailer’s Staten Island warehouse, who believed Amazon was not addressing the threat. Smalls decided to help stage a walkout demanding health safeguards including the worksite’s closure. He showed up despite being on paid quarantine from a close COVID contact, so Amazon fired him — catapulting him to fame.Article content
In leaked notes for which he voiced regret later, David Zapolsky, Amazon’s general counsel, called Smalls “not smart, or articulate” and suggested the company “make him the face of the entire union/organizing movement.”The general counsel’s attack was motivation to fight harder, Smalls said in an interview on Thursday. On Friday he pulled off an unthinkable victory as workers at JFK8 voted to unionize.
After his firing, he crisscrossed the country trying to rally essential workers, calling for an Amazon Prime Day boycott, even building a tree of defaced Amazon boxes outside founder Jeff Bezos’s home around Christmas. People who said they were Smalls’ associates alleged he did not properly account for the money he fundraised. Smalls disputed the claim and said he did not know the accusers.
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