This story originally published online at NC Newsline.
The campaign to unionize Amazon has set its sights on Durham, with Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment launching an organizing drive outside the company’s RDU5 warehouse on Monday.
This represents CAUSE’s second union push in the state, with the first in Garner resulting in an election defeat by a three-to-one margin in February that organizers challenged with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging the company coerced its employees into voting no and violated protections for union organizing. That election complaint remains ongoing.
Around 50 demonstrators rallied in support of the campaign kickoff at the truck entrance of the RDU5 facility on Monday afternoon, handing out union materials to workers finishing their shifts and raising their fists to delivery trucks honking in approval.
“I came to tell you we didn’t lose, we learned,” CAUSE President Ryan Brown told supporters.
“They thought they had buried us, but all they did was plant us,” Brown said. “And the thing about seeds is that seeds, they will always rise. They rise in Garner, they rise in Raleigh, and Durham, and Winston-Salem, and in Charlotte.”
Organizers said the campaign will target four facilities in the Durham area, including the RDU5 warehouse and three others. The union estimates that RDU5 has around 1,000 employees, while the other three each range in the hundreds.
“The good thing about Durham is that the facilities are smaller,” CAUSE Secretary Italo Medelius said in an interview. “Bringing all of these facilities together will give people a lot more solidarity to share strategies, to talk about what’s going on inside these warehouses, so we feel very, very confident that this campaign is going to turn out differently.” Durham City Council Member Nate Baker called for higher wages for Amazon workers at a rally on Nov. 3, 2025 and said the city stands with them. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
A key tenet of the campaign is fairer wages. According to the union campaign, workers start at $18.50 an hour — less than half of what MIT estimates constitutes a living wage for a single-income family with one child in the Durham area — and caps at $22 an hour, regardless of experience.
At the RDU1 facility in Garner, pay begins at $18.50 and goes up to $23.80, Amazon spokesperson Marc Heintzman said in a statement in February. But he added that “pay is not capped” and that the company raises hourly wages every year.
Supporters with the Union of Southern Service Workers and other area unions joined Monday’s event in solidarity, as did Durham City Council Member Nate Baker. The Durham City Council passed a resolution in June that “enthusiastically encourages” Amazon workers in the city to unionize.
“The city of Durham stands behind you in this fight!” Baker said to cheers. “What’s your wage? It should be higher. What’s your leave? It should be longer. You deserve better.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Durham union campaign, but in statements earlier this year during the Garner effort, spokesperson Eileen Hards said the company supports all employees’ right to decide whether to participate in a union.
“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union,” Hards said in February. “We believe that both decisions should be equally protected which is why we talk openly, candidly and respectfully about these topics, actively sharing facts with employees so they can use that information to make an informed decision.”
She added that Amazon believes employees will find joining a union unnecessary and “favor opportunities to have their unique voice heard by working directly with our team.”
“The fact is, Amazon already offers what many unions are requesting: safe, inclusive workplaces, competitive pay, industry-leading benefits — including health care on day one, pre-paid college tuition, and a 401k with company match — opportunities for career growth, and more,” Hards said. At a rally in Durham on Nov. 3, 2025, a CAUSE information booth features signs in both English and Nepali. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
To date, the only successful union campaign at an Amazon warehouse took place in a New York shipping facility in 2022, led by the Amazon Labor Union. No other unions have won recognition by the NLRB to negotiate on behalf of Amazon warehouse employees.
Jorge Meza, a worker at the RDU5 facility who volunteered with the union effort, said he’s pleased that the campaign has come to Durham. “I think it’s a really smart move. Durham has a rich history of labor organizing, organizing within intersectional communities here.”
Medelius, the union secretary, said part of the learning process from the first campaign was getting an in-depth understanding of the Durham facilities beforehand. That has resulted in a multilingual campaign, with pro-union signs in Spanish, Nepali, and Arabic present at the rally, reflecting the diversity of the warehouse workers.
“We feel strong enough inside of all those facilities that if Amazon wants to retaliate, we’re ready to jump in the boxing ring with them,” Medelius said. “We’re here to announce that we’re not going anywhere and we’re going to unionize.”
This represents CAUSE’s second union push in the state, with the first in Garner resulting in an election defeat by a three-to-one margin in February that organizers challenged with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging the company coerced its employees into voting no and violated protections for union organizing. That election complaint remains ongoing.
Around 50 demonstrators rallied in support of the campaign kickoff at the truck entrance of the RDU5 facility on Monday afternoon, handing out union materials to workers finishing their shifts and raising their fists to delivery trucks honking in approval.
“I came to tell you we didn’t lose, we learned,” CAUSE President Ryan Brown told supporters.
“They thought they had buried us, but all they did was plant us,” Brown said. “And the thing about seeds is that seeds, they will always rise. They rise in Garner, they rise in Raleigh, and Durham, and Winston-Salem, and in Charlotte.”
Organizers said the campaign will target four facilities in the Durham area, including the RDU5 warehouse and three others. The union estimates that RDU5 has around 1,000 employees, while the other three each range in the hundreds.
“The good thing about Durham is that the facilities are smaller,” CAUSE Secretary Italo Medelius said in an interview. “Bringing all of these facilities together will give people a lot more solidarity to share strategies, to talk about what’s going on inside these warehouses, so we feel very, very confident that this campaign is going to turn out differently.”
A key tenet of the campaign is fairer wages. According to the union campaign, workers start at $18.50 an hour—less than half of what MIT estimates constitutes a living wage for a single-income family with one child in the Durham area — and caps at $22 an hour, regardless of experience.
At the RDU1 facility in Garner, pay begins at $18.50 and goes up to $23.80, Amazon spokesperson Marc Heintzman said in a statement in February. But he added that “pay is not capped” and that the company raises hourly wages every year.
Supporters with the Union of Southern Service Workers and other area unions joined Monday’s event in solidarity, as did Durham City Council Member Nate Baker. The Durham City Council passed a resolution in June that “enthusiastically encourages” Amazon workers in the city to unionize.
“The city of Durham stands behind you in this fight!” Baker said to cheers. “What’s your wage? It should be higher. What’s your leave? It should be longer. You deserve better.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Durham union campaign, but in statements earlier this year during the Garner effort, spokesperson Eileen Hards said the company supports all employees’ right to decide whether to participate in a union.
“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union,” Hards said in February. “We believe that both decisions should be equally protected which is why we talk openly, candidly and respectfully about these topics, actively sharing facts with employees so they can use that information to make an informed decision.”
She added that Amazon believes employees will find joining a union unnecessary and “favor opportunities to have their unique voice heard by working directly with our team.”
“The fact is, Amazon already offers what many unions are requesting: safe, inclusive workplaces, competitive pay, industry-leading benefits — including health care on day one, pre-paid college tuition, and a 401k with company match — opportunities for career growth, and more,” Hards said.
To date, the only successful union campaign at an Amazon warehouse took place in a New York shipping facility in 2022, led by the Amazon Labor Union. No other unions have won recognition by the NLRB to negotiate on behalf of Amazon warehouse employees.
Jorge Meza, a worker at the RDU5 facility who volunteered with the union effort, said he’s pleased that the campaign has come to Durham. “I think it’s a really smart move. Durham has a rich history of labor organizing, organizing within intersectional communities here.”
Medelius, the union secretary, said part of the learning process from the first campaign was getting an in-depth understanding of the Durham facilities beforehand. That has resulted in a multilingual campaign, with pro-union signs in Spanish, Nepali, and Arabic present at the rally, reflecting the diversity of the warehouse workers.
“We feel strong enough inside of all those facilities that if Amazon wants to retaliate, we’re ready to jump in the boxing ring with them,” Medelius said. “We’re here to announce that we’re not going anywhere and we’re going to unionize.”
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