Labor News & Commentary February 14 Trump nominates an Amazon alum to lead OSHA & more

https://onlabor.org/february-14-2025/

By Esther Ritchin

Esther Ritchin is a student at Harvard Law School.

Happy Valentine’s day! In today’s news and commentary, North Carolina Amazon warehouse workers hold a union election, and Trump nominates an Amazon alum to lead OSHA.

Workers at an Amazon warehouse just outside Raleigh, North Carolina, are currently holding a union election, with voting taking place this week. If the vote succeeds, the warehouse would be the second Amazon warehouse to unionize, after a 2022 yes vote at a union drive in Staten Island, a vote that still has yet to result in a contract. The election also comes on the heels of a successful union drive at a Whole Foods in Philadelphia, a grocery store chain owned by Amazon. This movement, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE), is spearheaded by Reverend Ryan Brown, who was inspired to organize after his mistreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign faces many obstacles, including retaliation and anti-union marketing from Amazon, the company’s history of severe tactics in the wake of a union vote (including their recent shuttering of Canadian warehouses), and a newly destabilized NLRB.

Donald Trump has nominated David Keeling to lead OSHA. Keeling has been a safety executive at both UPS and Amazon, including the director of global road and transportation safety at Amazon. The nomination comes amidst a continual wave of reports of Amazon safety violations and complaints of disregard for worker health and safety, such as delivery drivers being forced to pee in bottles, long hours with strenuous physical work and minimal breaks, and continual prioritization of profits over health and human safety.