In the spring of 2020, the world changed, and for the workers inside Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, that change felt like a death sentence. While the world stayed home and ordered supplies to stay safe, the people picking and packing those supplies were working in a pressure cooker of speed and silence. Chris Smalls, a supervisor at the time, saw the fear in his colleagues’ eyes and decided to act. He didn’t have a law degree or a background in labor history; he had a megaphone and a conviction that “efficiency” should never come at the cost of human life.
When Smalls was fired for organizing a protest, he became the protagonist in a classic David versus Goliath story. A leaked memo from Amazon’s top brass revealed a plan to make Smalls the “face of the entire union/organizing drive” because they believed his image—a young Black man in streetwear—would alienate workers. They were wrong. Smalls leaned into his identity, setting up a tent at a bus stop outside the warehouse. For 300 days, in the snow and the rain, he provided free pizza, hand warmers, and, most importantly, a listening ear. He realized that the modern worker doesn’t want a lecture on 1930s labor law; they want to know that someone has their back today.
The victory of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) in April 2022 was an earthquake in the tech world. It proved that “Big Tech” was not invincible. Smalls’ success lay in his “Philosopher of Labor” approach: he understood that modern work is governed by an algorithm—a system that tracks every second of “time off task.” To fight an algorithm, Smalls used the one thing a computer cannot simulate: human connection. He built a “non-elite” philanthropy of his own, using small donations and mutual aid to sustain the movement.
Smalls represents a shift in the labor movement. He is the “Future” of the relay started by A. Philip Randolph. Where Randolph fought the Pullman Company’s monopoly over travel, Smalls is fighting Amazon’s monopoly over the digital marketplace. He has shown that the new labor front isn’t just about higher pay; it’s about “Algorithmic Accountability.” He is the voice ensuring that as we move deeper into the age of automation, the human being at the center of the warehouse is not forgotten.
Chris Smalls proved that you don’t need a boardroom to change the world; sometimes, all you need is a bus stop and a refusal to back down. No algorithm can defeat a Village that knows its worth.
