Amazon Air Hub Joins Forces with National Amazon Labor Union, Announces Card Campaign

Griffin Ritze, an Air Hub employee and union organizer, said the Air Hub workers will need help from the public to successfully unionize.

“The launch of card collection at KCVG is a moment of historic significance, not just for the unionization of Amazon but for the wider labor movement. If the campaign at KCVG is successful, it will only be the second unionized Amazon facility in the country, and it will concretely demonstrate a method to building a labor movement that can unionize all of Amazon and beyond,” said Greyson Van Arsdale, a volunteer supporting KCVG's union effort.

Organizers are demanding a $30 hourly wage for all of the Air Hub's 4,000 employees, as well as 180 hours of paid time off and union representation at disciplinary hearings. KCVG is the first Air Hub to publicly organize in the country.

Chris Smalls is the president of the ALU and successfully led the effort to organize the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, along with ALU vice president Derrick Palmer. It’s Amazon’s first and only location to win a union election, but Smalls urged the crowd of Air Hub workers and supporters to keep pushing the union effort at KCVG.

"I was an entry-level worker when I got hired at Amazon in 2015. I was making $12.75. I know the ins and outs of this company, I know what you guys go through on a daily basis, I know the grievances, I know the hardships," Smalls said to the crowd, police officers standing by in case organizers tried to advance closer to the facility. "You are the ones that deserve the money we make this company. We have to fight for it, they're not going to give it to us."

Chris Smalls ( @Shut_downAmazon ) is the president of the Amazon Labor Union. He helped famously unionize Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse. He’s helping KCVG launch their card authorization campaign. pic.twitter.com/q1kIYa9GMD

— Madeline Fening (@madeline_fening) March 18, 2023

Palmer spoke with CityBeat ahead of the March 18 announcement, saying the ALU tries to help support other Amazon warehouses that are organizing across the country, but this is their first time helping to organize an Air Hub.

“That’s why we’re going out there, to understand the dynamics of what’s going on. The workers, the ones who are actually working at the Air Hub, are the experts. We’re learning,” Palmer said.

Amazon warns KCVG employees about union organizers

On Friday, Amazon sent all KCVG Air Hub employees a text message that warned employees to protect their “personal information” from union organizers.

“It’s important to remember you have no obligation to speak to any person or group, including a union organizer,” the company said in a statement linked in the text message.


Mary Kate Paradis, a public relations manager for Amazon, told CityBeat that the company’s position and statement on the union effort has been the same since day one.

“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have. As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work,” Paradis reiterated.

Amazon has been sending warning signs to its KCVG employees about unionizing since the start of the union effort. In November, Amazon started posting physical and digital signs around the KCVG facility that warned employees of “third parties” trying to get their personal information. Organizers said the signs were meant to give employees a false impression of what a union does.