Organizing Amazon - book launch

Amazon workers in Coventry, England have won breakthrough wage gains through years of strikes and organizing at the global giant. Now, a new book documents these achievements, and the militant, grassroots methods the workers and their GMB union employed to build worker power.

Organizing Amazon: Building Worker Power Under Conditions of Fragmentation, Precarity and Regimentation offers a rich case study of the factors contributing to the union’s successes and setbacks. It provides a practical organizing model applicable beyond Amazon, offering strategies to engage the workforce, sustain support and develop leadership.

We are incredibly honoured to host the author of the book Tom Vickers, and longtime labour activist Jonathan Rosenblum, as well as two workers from the Coventry facility for the first stop on their North American organizing tour. The evening will feature a discussion of the lessons to be learned from the campaign in Coventry and what strategies will be needed for the Canadian labour movement to begin challenging the Amazon behemoth.

We would like to thank our friends at the Digital Labour Working Group at the University of Toronto for their support of this event.

Please stick around after the evening’s program for complimentary refreshments and to continue the discussion.

Featuring…

Tom Vickers is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the GMB-NTU Work Futures Research Observatory at Nottingham Trent University. He has been engaged with movements resisting capitalism exploitation and oppression for more than two decades.

Jonathan Rosenblum is a long-time union organizer and writer. Based in Seattle, Washington, he is Activist in Residence at the Center for Work and Democracy (Arizona State University) and is a part-time Amazon delivery driver. He is a member of the National Writers Union, has published dozens of articles about organizing, and is the author most recently of the book, We’re Coming for You and Your Rotten System: How Socialists Beat Amazon and Upended Big-City Politics. (OR Books)

Accessibility

College Street United Church is accessible to mobility devices via the Bathurst side entrance. The church features accessible gender-neutral washrooms and level access throughout. We kindly ask all participants to refrain from wearing scents or perfumes. Any questions regarding accessibility, participation, or programming can be directed to info@leopanitchschool.ca.