A grassroots campaign has led to the company’s first labor union.

For the first time in Amazon’s history of operation in the United States, workers at one of its warehouses have officially voted to form a union. The warehouse, located in Staten Island, New York, saw 2,654 votes in favor of joining the union and 2,131 opposed, with the motion ultimately passing.

Chris Smalls led a walkout in 2020 to protest conditions at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse.

He was fired the same day.

A leaked company memo calling him "not smart" fueled him to organize the most successful grassroots union drives in recent history.https://t.co/Fy5BdFKHHZ

— NPR (@NPR) April 4, 2022

The union, known as the Amazon Labor Union, was established by Christian Smalls, the former manager of the Staten Island warehouse, who was fired in 2020. Through a wildly successful grassroots and campaign and crowdfunding push, Smalls successfully established the union and negotiated a collective bargaining agreement for all of its members. This was despite the fact that Amazon took multiple measures to stop and slow Smalls’s progress, ultimately spending roughly $4.3 million in anti-union consultation.

In spite of the vote, labor experts and analytics believe Amazon will continue to attempt to stonewall the union and prevent any new negotiations from occuring.

Christian Smalls and his best friend from Amazon's New York warehouse, Derrick Palmer, set their sights on unionizing.

Amazon spent more than $4.3 million on anti-union consultants last year. The union spent $120,000 — and won a historic labor victory. https://t.co/XvNPyxIQaE pic.twitter.com/BJ9qiqnuOh

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 3, 2022

“Amazon will delay,” said David Rosenfeld, a labor lawyer at Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld, and a lecturer at the University California at Berkeley School of Law. “They’re not going to walk in and do the right thing because that will encourage organizing everywhere else. They’ll do everything they can to avoid a contract, and it will be a big, long, nasty fight.”