Statements, News, & Updates
In wake of COVID workplace deaths, workers across NC organize emergency rallies for safety! #SafeJobsSaveLives
Gloria Lee, a former Amazon worker, spent her afternoon leading chants and talking to Amazon workers outside a delivery station in east Durham. "Jeff Bezos you can't hide! We can see your greedy side," she chanted along with other Amazon workers and supporters as part...
Rehire the Memphis 7! Solidarity with Starbucks workers organizing
The Southern Workers Assembly sends our solidarity with the Memphis 7 and all Starbucks workers organizing for rights, safety, and power on the job. We join the calls for Starbucks to immediately rehire these workers and stop their racist union busting campaign....
SWA Builds on the Support Created by the Bessemer Amazon Union Campaign to Launch a South-Wide and National Social Movement
In late 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama contacted the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) to begin a historic organizing campaign at the facility. In January 2021, the majority Black...
Solidarity with Brookwood, AL Mineworkers Strike
Two significant labor actions have taken place in the South this year - both were in Alabama. The union organizing campaign at the Amazon plant in Bessemer and the mineworkers strike in Brookwood. The South is a critical battleground for labor and the fight for social...
As part of Southern trend, Elizabeth City workers strike for better pay
After three years of receiving zero pay raises and working 16 months through a global pandemic with no recognition or hazard pay, city workers in Elizabeth City, N.C., staged a two-day work stoppage June 29-30. The Black-majority workers in the city’s Public Works and...
Solidarity with 3,000 Striking UAW Workers in Dublin, VA!
The following solidarity statement, issued on behalf of the Southern Workers Assembly, was written by Al Long, a retired IT worker and SWA member in Norfolk, VA. Sisters and Brothers of UAW 2069, The Southern Workers Assembly stands in solidarity with your strike...
Bessemer Amazon Union Vote: We Learn as We Struggle!
In spite of the vote count, important developments have resulted from the Bessemer Amazon workers’ campaign. We applaud the Alabama Amazon workers who took on the world’s second largest corporation drawing thousands of activists into a long-over-due workers’ rights...
March 20: Actions Planned Across the South in Solidarity with Bessemer Amazon Workers
On March 16, Southern Workers Assembly co-coordinator Saladin Muhammad spoke alongside Hammer & Hoe author and Alabama labor historian Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley on a national webinar about the BAmazon union struggle. The webinar focused on the central role that Black...
Solidarity with Bessemer Amazon Workers Grows – Upcoming Actions
Solidarity for Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama fighting to organize their union with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) has continued to expand across the country and around the world following coordinated actions on February 20. This is a...
Bessemer Amazon Workers: Ignites National Movement to Organize Labor in the South
The Feb 20, National Day of Action in solidarity with the Bessemer, Alabama Amazon workers, was a national call to action to support organizing the South. Thanks to the many who organized and participated in solidarity actions. The Bessemer workers launched their...
