Vox Sentences - A stunning victory for Amazon workers

Workers in Staten Island form the first union in Amazon history; A Red Cross team attempting to help evacuate Ukrainians is forced to turn back.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

The first US Amazon union is here

Andrea Renault/AFP via Getty Images

• On Friday, workers at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse voted to form the first US union in Amazon’s history — a massive victory for the labor movement that organizers hope will catch on elsewhere. [National Public Radio / Andrea Hsu]
•  2,654 employees at the warehouse, known as JFK8, voted for the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), with 2,131 opposed. Amazon made employees attend anti-union meetings and spent more than $4 million on anti-union efforts.  [New York Times / Karen Weise and Noam Scheiber]
• The ALU wants higher pay, longer breaks, and more reasonable expectations for productivity. These changes could make the company’s two-day shipping guarantee, a significant driver of its success, more expensive to maintain. [CNBC / Annie Palmer]
• Also on Friday, Amazon employees in Alabama appeared to have voted against unionizing; however, the number of contested ballots could change the result. [Associated Press / Haleluya Haderno, Anne D’Innocenzio, and Bobby Caina Calvan]
• The victory against the nation’s second largest employer could be a turning point for the US labor movement. Another Amazon facility on Staten Island will attempt to unionize this month. [Washington Post / Rachel Lerman, Greg Jaffe, Jeff Stein, and Anna Betts]

A Red Cross team is unable to evacuate Ukrainians from Mariupol

• On Friday, a Red Cross team attempting to evacuate thousands of Ukrainians from the besieged city of Mariupol had to turn back. [Reuters / Emma Farge and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi]
• A Red Cross convoy of three vehicles and nine staff planned to escort 54 buses and additional cars to Ukrainian-held territory, but could not safely enter the city. The team said it would try again on Saturday. [New York Times / Megan Specia]
• Mariupol, a southern port city of more than 400,000 people, has been under heavy attack since the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Thousands of civilians have fled in recent weeks, but about 100,000 people remain because getting out is still very dangerous. [USA Today / Celina Tebor, Ella Lee, and Jeanine Santucci]
• Russia and Ukraine resumed peace talks on Friday by video. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said some progress had been made, and the talks would continue. [NBC]

White House press secretary Jen Psaki is reportedly in talks to leave the White House in May for a job at MSNBC. [Axios / Sara Fischer]

• African refugees accuse the US of racial bias as it prepares to accept thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war. [AP / Philip Marcelo]
• The US Fish and Wildlife Service will allow hunters to bring up to six elephant trophies into the US from Zimbabwe — the first African elephant carcasses to enter the country in five years. [NYT / Miranda Green]
• Betty Reid Soskin, the National Park Service’s oldest active ranger, retires at 100. [Guardian / Dani Anguiano]

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“I hope that everybody’s paying attention now because a lot of people doubted us."

[Chris Smalls, Amazon union organizer / AP]

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