Amazon Labor Union president joins Friday farmworker protest in Healdsburg

Among those supporting North Bay farmworkers on Friday was Chris Smalls, founder and president of the Amazon Labor Union, who said he changed his flight so he could attend the protest.

Smalls was a leader in the successful fight to unionize the giant online retailer’s Staten Island JFK8 warehouse operation, a landmark moment of the modern labor movement. In Santa Rosa to give the keynote speech at the We the Future Social Justice Conference held at Santa Rosa Junior College, he said he wanted to support the farm laborers’ cause.

“I'm grateful to say that we stand in solidarity and we're behind you guys 100%,” Smalls said to the crowd that assembled at Windsor’s Keiser Park before heading to Vino Farms’ Eastside Road property. “As an Amazon worker, especially during COVID, we went through the same horrendous conditions where we're working long hours, we're not being paid hazard pay.”

Later, he rode in the caravan of cars that carried workers and their supporters to the protest, where he walked holding a North Bay Jobs for Justice sign.

“I want to help not only amplify but show solidarity with Jobs for Justice and the farmworkers,” he said in a separate interview. “If they can stay resilient and stay together, they should absolutely be successful in their demands. And their demands are not you know, they're not monstrous demands. They're really basic human rights. That's all they're asking for. And I think they will be victorious here.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay.