How Two Friends Beat Amazon and Built a Union

This episode contains strong language. 

A year and a half ago, the Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Karen Weise began examining labor practices at Amazon.

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.

We sat down Mr. Smalls and Mr. Palmer to ask them how it happened.

Guest: Jodi Kantor, 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. 

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Background reading: 

• How Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer won the first successful unionization effort at any Amazon warehouse in the United States, potentially one of the most significant labor victories in a generation. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.