Portside

February 10-15, 2025, 4,300 workers at an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse in Garner, North Carolina, will vote on whether to be represented by the union Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment, or CAUSE.

The vote will be the culmination of a three-year push by CAUSE, which is not affiliated with any outside union, to organize the RDU1 facility that opened in 2020. Among CAUSE’s demands are a $30/hour minimum wage, 180 hours of paid leave time, paid one-hour lunch breaks, and improved workplace safety and accommodations for injured workers given the notoriously unsafe conditions at Amazon warehouses.

Below, Rev. Ryan Brown, the president of CAUSE who was fired by Amazon in what he believes was retaliation for his union activism, outlines the stakes in this week’s union vote. — Chris Kromm

The Philistine warrior Goliath stood over nine feet tall, clad in bronze armor, armed with a spear, sword, and javelin. For forty days, he mocked the Israelites, daring anyone to challenge him. No one would — until a shepherd boy named David stepped forward. He had no armor, no sword, only a sling and five smooth stones. The world saw a young boy facing certain defeat. But David had something Goliath did not: faith, conviction, and the knowledge that justice was on his side.

David let his stone fly, and the giant fell.

Amazon is our Goliath. It is one of the largest corporations in human history, worth over two trillion dollars. It wields its power ruthlessly, crushing opposition with corporate lawyers, high-paid consultants, and million-dollar union-busting campaigns. It fires those who dare to speak up, as it did to me in December. It threatens, surveils, and retaliates. It tells us that we will never win. But like David, we refuse to cower in fear.

And just like David, we are workers that society has long overlooked.

Shepherds, in David’s time, were among the lowest-paid, most disrespected workers. They spent their days tending sheep, doing the kind of hard, thankless labor others refused to do. No one saw them as powerful. Amazon workers know that feeling all too well. We work long shifts on concrete floors, lifting, scanning, packing — tracked, timed, and pushed to the limit by a company that treats us as disposable.

But David did not fight with the weapons of kings. He did not wear armor or wield a warrior’s sword. He used what was natural to him — the smooth stones from the land he worked, the sling he had used every day to protect his flock. And just like David, Amazon workers are using what we already have — our collective power, our solidarity, our willingness to stand together—to fight back. We don’t need Amazon’s billions to win. We need each other.

This week, from February 10 to 15, my coworkers and I at Amazon’s RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner, North Carolina, will cast our votes in a historic union election. We are fighting to become the first unionized Amazon fulfillment center in the South and only the second in the country. And we know that no matter what the results are, Amazon will do everything in its power to stop us. That’s why we are prepared — just as David didn’t walk onto that battlefield with one stone, but five. He was ready for whatever stood in his way, and so are we.

For three years, we have built this worker-led movement, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE), because no one should have to sacrifice their health, dignity, or livelihood just to make a living. We are not fighting for abstract ideals — we are fighting for wages that can feed a family, safe working conditions, and an end to a system that treats human beings as disposable.

Amazon prioritizes profit over everything else — especially the well-being of workers. We all appreciate fast delivery, but it should never come at the cost of human suffering. That’s why we have endured intimidation, anti-union propaganda, and even illegal retaliation. They want workers to believe that we are powerless. But if we were powerless they wouldn’t be fighting so hard to stop us.

This is a long-term fight, one that will shape the future of work in our state. Five years ago, Amazon was the 89th largest employer in North Carolina. Today, it is the sixth-largest, with 24,000 workers statewide. The union election at RDU1 this week is just one step along our path. If we win, Amazon workers across the South will see what is possible. If we lose, we will fight again, because the only way to bring justice to a system built on exploitation is through collective action.

CAUSE is just getting started. Across the country, the South, and North Carolina, Amazon workers are rising. We will not stop until every job at Amazon is a good union job.

David’s victory over Goliath was not just his own. It was a victory for every person who had been told to accept oppression as the way things must be. In the same way, our fight is bigger than Amazon. It is about every worker who has ever been told they don’t deserve better. Every worker who has been threatened into silence. Every worker who has wondered if they are alone.

We are not alone.

The stone is in our hands. And we are ready to let it fly.

[Rev. Ryan Brown is a pastor and co-founder and current president of Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE.]