3 Books With Neil Pasricha

Chapter 143: Chris Smalls on anti-Amazon activism and abolishing aristocracy


Listen Later

Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world with over a million employees in the U.S. alone. A monolith responsible for trillions of dollars of revenue through retail, entertainment, and infrastructure.   But Chris Smalls took it on anyway.   Chris had worked at Amazon for 5 years before he was fired in March 2020 after leading a walkout at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse to protest pandemic working conditions.   "We all got radicalized at some point in our lives," he told me. "My life changed forever when I got fired from Amazon."   Chris used that motivation to work with his former colleagues to try to unionize the warehouse. The first attempt failed, but in March 2022 the vote passed, and it became the first Amazon warehouse in the United States to be unionized.   As of today Amazon has not come to the bargaining table and is pursuing multiple legal actions to avoid recognizing the union, including challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.   What's going on?   I flew down to Hackensack, New Jersey to find out.   What really happened at that warehouse?   And what happens next?   Chris filled me in on life after the union drive, why he's been traveling the globe, his experience being under surveillance by Amazon and the police, what it's like leading protests at Jeff Bezos house, and why the Amazon Labor Union has recently affiliated with the Teamsters.   Chris calls bullshit on a lot of what we hear about labor organizing and reports on what's happening in the street. What can we learn from socialist countries? Why is the U.S. government reluctant to enforce antitrust regulations? What does fair human work look like in an increasingly algorithmic and AI-dominated society?   Pull up a white plastic chair beside us in Chris's backyard as he leans back behind dark shades and plumes of smoke to tell us how working at Amazon is like slavery, what's happening with human jobs as automation skyrockets, whether unions can be effective today, what politicians represent the working class, his 3 most formative books, and much, much more...   Let’s flip the page to Chapter 143 now...
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

3 Books With Neil PasrichaBy Neil Pasricha: Bestselling Author

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

251 ratings


More shows like 3 Books With Neil Pasricha

View all
On Being with Krista Tippett by On Being Studios

On Being with Krista Tippett

10,272 Listeners

This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,766 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,212 Listeners

The Moth by The Moth

The Moth

27,213 Listeners

Good Life Project by Jonathan Fields / Acast

Good Life Project

3,289 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,345 Listeners

10% Happier with Dan Harris by 10% Happier

10% Happier with Dan Harris

12,542 Listeners

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso by Lemonada Media

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

1,208 Listeners

Good One: A Podcast About Jokes by Vulture

Good One: A Podcast About Jokes

1,441 Listeners

City Arts & Lectures by City Arts & Lectures

City Arts & Lectures

378 Listeners

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown by Vox Media Podcast Network

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown

23,615 Listeners

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out by Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

4,401 Listeners

The Interview by The New York Times

The Interview

1,444 Listeners

All There Is with Anderson Cooper by CNN

All There Is with Anderson Cooper

9,732 Listeners

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus by Lemonada Media

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus

10,834 Listeners