Amazon Labor Union Loses Union Hall Due To 'Lack Of Funds'
Without a contract enabling the union to require union dues from Amazon workers, ALU cannot pay its bills.
By Peter List, Editor | May 10, 2024
As a follow-on to last month’s report on the sorry state of Amazon Labor Union’s (ALU) finances, it appears that ALU has lost its only union hall due to a “lack of funds.”
According to a tweet on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), Michelle Valentin Nieves, a vice president and founding member of the Amazon Labor Union, announced:
Very sad to announce we have lost our ALU Union Hall due to lack of funds hope your all happy now ……. Karmas A B…….. and it has no expiration date !!!
Last month, an analysis of ALU’s 2023 financial reports (on file with the U.S. Department of Labor) revealed that the union has zero members, and spent $67,083 more than it took in.
Additionally, the report also showed that, at the end of 2023, the union was past due on money owed to its landlord, as well as to its law firm.
Ironically, the ALU did receive $669,898 in 2023, and nearly all of it came from donations—with $425,000 coming from the International Commission for Labor Rights, a non-profit based in New York, and headed by Jeanne Mirer, one of ALU’s attorneys, to whom the union still owed money at the end of 2023.
With no contract in place, the ALU has been unable to collect union dues. However, were the union to have a contract and, if union dues were $30 per month per Amazon employee, with up to 8,000 employees at the facility where ALU won its election in 2022, the union would garner approximately $240,000 per month or nearly $2.9 million per year.