A vote by Amazon workers to organize their warehouse in New York surprised and inspired longtime labor backers, for whom a new reality is settling in: It can be done, though it won't be easy.
News on Friday of the first-ever U.S. union coming to the nation's second-largest private employer ricocheted among labor groups as they began to see a path ahead to enlist workers and end decades of contraction in their ranks.
Amazon now seems a more manageable target for them, though still a challenging one. Some 55% of votes cast at the Staten Island facility were for the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), a new group headed by the online retailer's former employee Christian Smalls.