Baltimore supports Bessemer Amazon workers

Beautiful weather greeted demonstrators gathered outside Baltimore City Hall on March 20, a national day of solidarity with the 6,000 Amazon workers fighting for a union in Bessemer, Ala.

The rally included a program of powerful speakers. These included: Rev. Annie Chambers, Peoples Power Assembly; NAACP Baltimore Chapter President Rev. Kobi Little; Courtney Jenkins, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists-Baltimore Chapter; Nnamdi Lumumba, Ujima People’s Progress Party; and Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance representative Virginia Rodino. 

All the speakers gave passionate talks in support of the Amazon unionization effort. Rev. Annie  Chambers also expressed solidarity with the victims of the recent horrific anti-Asian shooting spree in Atlanta. 

Peoples Power Assembly members Joyce Butler and Lars chaired the event, while PPA organizer Andre Powell read a powerful statement from a local Baltimore Amazon worker. 

Groups of workers from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) attended. So did Van Green, whose spouse Duryea Green is unjustly imprisoned, and Marilyn Barnes, mother of police victim Marlyn Barnes, from the Prisoners Solidarity Committee.

At the conclusion of the rally, the crowd marched to Amazon-owned Whole Foods, chanting, “When Amazon workers are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!”