How Two Friends Beat Amazon and Built a Union

<p><i>This episode contains strong language. </i></p><p>A year and a half ago, the Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Karen Weise began examining labor practices at Amazon.</p><p>In the process, they met Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer, two Amazon workers at a warehouse in New York, who had embarked on an improbable attempt to create the company’s first union. Last week, they did it.</p><p>We sat down Mr. Smalls and Mr. Palmer to ask them how it happened.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/jodi-kantor?smid=pc-thedaily">Jodi Kantor</a>, an investigative reporter for The New York Times; and Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer, warehouse workers who led the first successful unionization attempt at Amazon. </p><p>Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/the-daily?module=inline">subscribe to our newsletter</a>. </p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>How Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer won the first successful unionization effort at any Amazon warehouse in the United States, potentially one of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/business/amazon-union-christian-smalls.html?smid=pc-thedaily">most significant labor victories in a generation</a>. </li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p>