Amazon union organizers start another NC campaign — this time in Durham
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- CAUSE launches union drive at four Durham Amazon sites, announced at RDU5.
- Organizers press for higher pay and stable shifts while facing Amazon opposition.
- Campaign follows RDU1 defeat; organizers must win 30% card support for votes.
Less than a year after losing its election at a massive Amazon warehouse near Raleigh, a local union has launched a new campaign to organize the company’s workers at four facilities in Durham.
Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment announced plans to unionize Durham locations during an event Monday outside the Amazon RDU5 sortation center on TW Alexander Drive. Amazon workers, pro-union advocates, and Durham councilman Nate Baker attended the roadside rally.
“You deserve better,” Baker said. “I don't care if you think you do or you don't. You do. What's your wage? It should be higher. What's your leave? It should be longer.”
CAUSE is an independent union formed in early 2022 by Ryan Brown and Mary Hill, who at the time each worked at Amazon’s RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner. Their bid to unionize that 4,300-employee facility fell short in February when workers voted nearly 3-to-1 against the union. CAUSE has accused Amazon of conducting unfair labor practices during this campaign, which the company has denied. Brown was fired from the facility ahead of the vote over what he described as union-busting and what Amazon called his “repeated misconduct.”
“We didn’t lose, we learned,” Brown said Monday of the Garner defeat.
The Durham facilities CAUSE seeks to organize are RDU5, the delivery station DRT8, the same-day delivery station SNC3, and the large loads fulfillment site HRD2. Some who work at these facilities, including drivers, are contractors who won’t be eligible to be part of an Amazon employees’ union.
At Monday’s event, workers cited higher starting pay and more consistent shift lengths as benefits they wished to achieve through organizing. “My pay is $18.50,” said Jorge Meza, a 30-year-old worker at RDU5. “With a company like this, you kind of would expect a little bit more considering how much they’re making.”
Another Amazon union fight ahead?
Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the United States and the sixth-biggest employer in North Carolina. The company sits just outside the top 10 hirers in Durham County. Like many prominent U.S. tech companies, its market valuation has risen in recent years and today is around $2.7 trillion. The company made headlines last week for announcing mass layoffs of its office workforce.
To force a union election, organizers must first collect union authorization cards from at least 30% of employees. CAUSE says it had gotten more than 1,700 cards at the RDU1 site south of downtown Raleigh before the group called its ultimately failed election.
Amazon has fought against unionization efforts, with the JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, remaining the only successful U.S. unionization campaign. In Garner, the company held anti-union informational meetings and posted a message on its facility video board that told workers, “You have no obligation to speak to any group or representative of a group, including a union representative.” An adjacent image showed a finger declining a call on a phone screen.
“The fact is, Amazon already offers what many unions are requesting,” company spokesperson Eileen Hards wrote in a statement to The News & Observer on Monday. “competitve pay, health benefits on day one, and opportunities for career growth. We look forward to working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
RDU1 is one of the company’s largest facilities in the state. To help unionize, some pro-labor advocates known as “salts” had taken jobs within the four-story warehouse. On Monday, a different campaign in a different city kicked off with organizers handing out flyers to employees as they drove out of the RDU5 complex.
This story was originally published November 3, 2025 at 5:52 PM.
