At the Amazon Warehouse in Garner, a Worker-Led Uninionization Effort is Underway

View This Email In Your Browser

Good morning, readers.

Our thoughts are with our neighbors in Western North Carolina who are just beginning to assess the full extent of the damage from Hurricane Helene. 

We’ve compiled a rolling list of Triangle drop-off sites and other local resources for hurricane relief efforts. 

If you’re looking for more ways to help, Blue Ridge Public Radio and WFAE have good lists of organizations working on the ground and in the air. 

Hundreds of workers at RDU1 Amazon warehouse in Garner have signed union cards since last month.

The card-signing campaign, led by Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment—better known as C.A.U.S.E.—comes two-and-a-half years after hourly workers at the warehouse began organizing for a union.

There is more buzz around C.A.U.S.E. now than ever before. A video of Duke football players helping to gather signatures was shared more than a thousand times on X. The movement grabbed headlines last week with a C.A.U.S.E. press conference.

But when you step back and look at the task as a whole, it feels extremely challenging.

Thirty percent of hourly workers at RDU1 must sign union cards in order to trigger a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. The turnover rate for hourly Amazon workers is extraordinarily high; in 2022, leaked documents showed the company’s annual turnover rate to be higher than 100 percent. And to complicate matters further, it’s not clear how many people are employed at RDU1. 

Amazon is not required to disclose those numbers, and the workforce fluctuates, especially during the holidays when the warehouse brings on seasonal staff. Some estimates put it as high as 6,000.

C.A.U.S.E.’s solution? Shoot for the moon.

Read more about the push here. And have a good Thursday. 

—Lena

---

---

Durham

Downtown Durham’s Mad Kicks is a family affair and the Triangle’s new base for sneakerheads.

Wake

The Wake County school board elections are nonpartisan in name only. 

ICYMI: With Red Hat Amphitheater saved, Raleigh’s new mayor and city council will charter downtown’s future course.

Orange

The former UNC economics professor whose contract wasn’t renewed after his class was secretly filmed has filed a complaint against the university and UNC System Board of Governors. 

North Carolina

Mo Green, the Democratic candidate for state superintendent, is making the case for public education.  

For Western North Carolinians, Hurricane Helene was a disaster no one saw coming.

---

If you’d like to advertise your business to the Daily’s 30,000-plus subscribers, please contact [email protected]

---