Goodbye to All That
Good-Bye To All That

		

			

		
	
	
		
Amazon has turned tail on its plans to build a second headquarters
in Long Island City, Queens. While the move represents a surprising win for a
coalition of activists, ranging from immigrant rights groups to labor activists
and local unions, it is less clear that Amazon’s refusal to negotiate represents
a long-term win. Essentially, what Amazon has done in New York is a continuation
of its long-standing and global refusal to acknowledge the power of labor, the
very power that has made Jeff Bezos the “world’s richest man.” While what’s happened
in New York is a clear sign that local and direct organising works, this moment
is also a loss for unionised labor and for fighting the more troubling business
model that sits at the heart of Amazon’s “success.” Unless the other cities in
Amazon’s sights (Nashville and Arlington) stand in solidarity with the concerns
raised in New York, finding ways to bring unions into Amazon warehouses and
holding the corporation accountable to local community needs and concerns, including
Amazon’s refusal to pay taxes, its entanglement with ICE, and its reliance on
Workfare employment, New York will simply have lost a real chance to build union
leverage in the digital economy. 



To be clear, I am not suggesting the issue here is that New
York lost jobs or that local organising has not scored a serious victory. I am
suggesting the conversation is missing an essential component. With one side
claiming that “they defeated Amazon”, the other will continue to cry that “jobs
have been lost” and both sides are missing the point. Without holding Amazon’s
feet to the unionised-labor fire, they have not been defeated. This is particularly
true if they are allowed to set up shop, uncontested, in other states. Truthfully,
cities should have called bullshit on Amazon’s competition on day one, but that’s
another story. No one wins when bad jobs are created, dragging down standards for
all workers. Yet, in the case of New York, many are now outraged the city has
lost “good” jobs, or the jobs associated with the well-paid tech-elite. Yet, as
the residents of Queens are right to articulate, these “good” jobs do not
equate to greater social equity. On the contrary, the fight that Queens has
taken up is precisely about the broader social ramifications of wealth inequality
that the tech industry has generated in cities. Amazon’s “good tech jobs” are fundamentally
reliant on the proliferation of an increasingly invisible periphery of
flexible, non-unionised, and increasingly impoverished workers. Without seeing
this labor arrangement very clearly, both sides of the conversation are missing
the point, as it is this labor model that must be tempered, globally. This is
why what is getting lost in the current “debate” is frustrating—the point is
not to chase them away or to simply bring jobs. Unions must find a foothold in
this economy, otherwise we remain in a “business as usual” moment for a company
reliant on heavily compromised, unprotected workers. 



Again, to be clear, New York has won its dignity here. Local activists have shown up the utter political derangement of handing out money to the world’s richest man while issues of wealth disparity, racial justice and immigration rights, gentrification and housing, and a crumbling transportation system have been galvanising nascent social movements. That Cuomo and DeBlasio thought those nascent movements could just get under the bus is about as smart as leaving snow on the ground in Chicago. Yet, this coalition must continue to stand with workers across states and carry on their fight. Unions too must learn from this moment. Amazon is not just an opportunity to secure jobs or union memberships, far from it. Your fight is in the very concerns raised by the people of Queens. Listen up.    

			
				

	

			
	
	
		Lecturer in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh		
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