The Amazon Labor Union could use your help.
Dear MacKenzie Scott:
I am writing you with a modest proposal. Give the Amazon Labor Union a million dollars.
You have already done many admirable things with your money, giving away more than $12.4 billion since you started fulfilling your Giving Pledge in 2019. You have been clear, in your own writing, that you want to use your resources to support “powerful levers for change.” You have declared your “conviction that people who experience with inequities are the ones best equipped to design solutions.” You have chosen to prioritize organizations run by leaders of color.
You have told us that you are “governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands” and that “people working to build power from within their communities are the agents of change.”
You’ve dared to seek out and support innovative organizations working on the margins of mainstream philanthropy and chosen to elevate groups that seek to shift our culture and inspire us with visions of a better future.
You’ve paid “special attention” to organizations “operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.”
And you’ve given money to many organizations that do more than offer direct relief to those most in need, by supporting institutions like public colleges and HBCUs that are our society’s most vital vehicles for giving people the educational opportunities needed to rise into the middle class.
But you’ve never given money to a labor union.
Unions are one of the most powerful mechanisms we have for improving people’s lives and reducing inequality. Not only does a union lift the wages of its own workers, unions set standards for entire industries and occupations. According to Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, the decline of unions in America is directly related to the rise of inequality (see chart below). At the societal level, unions strengthen democracy by giving workers more voice in policy debates. In Western Europe, where rates of unionization are much higher than in the United States, there is less inequality and living standards are also higher.
Of course, unions also shift power, which is why many unenlightened employers fight them, using a mix of aggression, intimidation and often illegal tactics. It’s why lobbyists for big business have devoted decades to making it harder for workers to organize. Despite that, or maybe also because of that, support among American workers for unions is approaching a historic high.
Now, to be clear, unions aren’t allowed to take money from employers, a rule that is meant to block the creation of company unions. Large donations of any kind to unions would be problematic because of how that could take power from their members. But there are perfectly legitimate and defensible ways for foundations to back labor organizing, including through grants to aligned nonprofits that do worker training and education.
Right now, anyone who wants to support the budding Amazon Labor Union can give to their Solidarity Fund, a GoFundMe page which is paying for “campaign literature, transportation costs, upkeep for our base of operations, our website, union swag for the workers, a heating tower to keep organizers and workers warm when tabling outside the buildings, Covid relief, and food for workers during union meetings and break times.”
Obviously, it would be a big statement for you, MacKenzie Scott, to support the Amazon Labor Union. For the first time in history, several thousand Amazon warehouse workers have voted to unionize. They still have a long road ahead to win a collective bargaining agreement. But their victory last Friday is inspiring people all over the United States and the world to believe in their own power to unite and improve the conditions of their lives. Surely you see that, too. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now.
Sincerely yours,
Micah Sifry