What if Amazon employees had a union? If you work there, you probably just glanced over your shoulder to see if someone caught you reading that sentence. The word “union” can get you frog-marched out of the building (It’s illegal to bust union activity, but the fines are cheaper than solidarity). I’m allowing myself to dream. No more dog-eat-dog office politics. Having an actual say in how the company is run. Demanding the same democracy we expect 16 hours a day at home for the 8 hours we spend at work.
One thing that would improve, according to the Economic Policy Institute, is race relations.
Seriously, what if instead of corporate trainings about implicit bias that leave people feeling resentful1, we just allowed Amazon workers to unionize? We don’t have to imagine the effect that would have on racial and gender equity, we know it would improve them23.
No matter your race or your gender, when people aren’t struggling to survive in the workplace, they don’t hoard resources or take out frustration on those with less power.
But Amazon leadership doesn’t make it easy for us to work together. That’s why they insist on cutting a percentage of people every year, no matter how well they perform.
You watch someone with less power get mistreated and think, “Thank God it’s not me.”
That fear keeps us from trusting each other.
Even more frightening is the question that follows: if you cooperate with me, how do you know I won’t turn out to be just another abuser? This is sometimes referred to as “having a wolf by the ear”—you can’t hold on, but you don’t feel safe letting go. I was that wolf. Please believe me: I wouldn’t bite.
We’ve been through enough together.
Have I earned your trust?
Staying up late to help teammates, standing up for my co-worker, celebrating office birthdays— you’ve seen my performance reviews. You know my shame.
Have I earned your trust?
No matter what, I’m not leaving you behind—because with unions, nobody gets left behind.
I used to believe that. That’s what I’d say if I still worked at Amazon.
But I don’t.
I have to accept that’s not my fight anymore. I quit years ago. It’s up to the current employees to read the histories and carry on the torch. I can’t put my heart into that place anymore, doing so broke me and I’m still healing years later.
Amazon is just a place where I used to work— a place where I once believed in magic.
- Rey, J. D. (2021, June 15). Amazon’s black employees say the company’s HR Department is failing them. Vox. https://www.vox.com/recode/22524538/amazon-diversity-black-employees-human-resources-department ↩︎
- Bivens, J., McNicholas, C., Moore, K. K., & Poydock, M. (2023, July 31). Unions promote racial equity. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved November 9, 2025, from https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-promote-racial-equity/ ↩︎
- Iwpr. (2023, February 13). The facts are clear: Unions help women close the pay gap. Institute for Women’s Policy Research. https://iwpr.org/the-facts-are-clear-unions-help-women-close-the-pay-gap/
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