Workers Don't Necessarily Win When Leaders Chase Clout

Why did Christian Smalls meet with Joe Biden as his administration was giving gifts to Amazon?

Christian Smalls has earned a place in the spotlight with courageous leadership and organizing of New York City Amazon workers. He’s stared-down intimidation and retaliation from the corporate behemoth personally, and has led his fellow workers to do the same, winning an historic union battle in the process.

Smalls’ bold on-the-ground work and rhetoric both are inspiring workers worldwide and he’s justifiably got a lot of luster to his name right now. This means that a whole lot of politicians and corporate hacks who didn’t help him, his union, or fellow workers one iota are now scrambling to associate themselves with him superficially, so that they can benefit from an apparent closeness to his and the other Amazon workers’ bravery.

Letting elected officials into a union celebration/battle certainly isn’t a bad thing, in and of itself, so long as the union can negotiate strong, material support from said politicians so that the elected officials can then support the workers’ efforts, even if they were late coming to the cause. It remains to be seen if Smalls and the Amazon workers can do that with all the clout-chasing Democrats who are clamoring to snap photos with them right now, but so far it doesn’t look promising.

Smalls did a masterful job on his appearance on White supremacist Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show the other month, rhetorically nudging the host to endorse labor talking points, staying disciplined with his message, and not allowing his presence or image to be co-opted for petty political gain by the host. This writer isn’t so sure that Smalls’ recent meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden was as successful.

Biden, a corporate stooge who has resolutely and violently stood against workers’ rights for his entire five-decade career, invited Smalls to the White House to bask in the union organizer’s glow. Smalls met with him, didn’t negotiate any material support from Biden, and didn’t make any public demands from the President.

Smalls merely smiled for the cameras, shook hands with Biden, and allowed the President to be associated with his courage without having lent any actual support to the workers’ cause, or promising any future assistance. Make no mistake about it, either, the history of the United States is filled with repeated, direct, and massively impactful interventions by Presidents in labor battles between workers and management.

Thing is, Presidents usually intercede to help management and corporations brutally put down worker disputes and strikes, doing everything from negotiation table threats and intimidation to using armed force to put down workers. Presidents can and often do get involved in worker conflicts with large companies.

Smalls didn’t call for Biden to do the same, this time on behalf of workers. Even worse was the timing.

Biden and his administration had just given billions of our dollars to Amazon at the very moment Amazon was attempting to bust Smalls’ union. Smalls didn’t mention that.

So, Smalls’ fluffy phot-op with Biden also helped hide Biden’s role in supporting Amazon’s union-busting. Meeting with a material enemy of one’s cause, without calling attention to their harm, or demanding a change of course from them, or negotiating new help from them, seems like something that won’t help Amazon workers in the least, but instead merely help elevate the perceived stature of the leaders meeting.

The photo-op was good for Biden, because he could pose as a friend of the working person, and it might be good for Smalls’ burgeoning political career because being invited to the White House and recognized as important sure puts him in rare union boss air, but I’m just not sure how good it all is for Amazon workers.