Amazon worker Shannon Allen opposes censorship of her video statement by Teamsters-linked Facebook page
By
Will Morrow
11 August 2018
Shannon Allen, the injured and homeless Amazon worker who published a video statement on Monday calling for a united struggle of Amazon and UPS workers internationally, responded yesterday to the censorship of her video by a Facebook page controlled by members of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a faction of the Teamsters union.
More than 20,000 UPS workers are members of the “Vote no on UPS contract” Facebook page. The administrators of the page removed a post of Shannon’s video on Tuesday.
Shannon said the censorship of her video showed that the Teamsters union was fearful of workers from Amazon and UPS forming rank-and-file committees in the warehouses and hubs and linking up their struggles.
“It reminds me of being at work, where we’re not allowed to speak to one another,” she said. “Amazon has the workstations so far apart because they don’t want employees to talk. That’s one of the reasons the breaks are so short, so you don’t have time to walk to areas with other workers.”
Shannon said the Teamsters union “doesn’t want us talking to one another because we would be a powerful force if workers at Amazon, UPS workers and the [United States] Postal Service all united. Everybody thinks Jeff Bezos is powerful because he has Amazon. But the workers banding together, to become a rank-and-file committee, would be more powerful than Bezos’ $150 billion. Because we could control the operations, and we could slow or stop production. At UPS, the drivers wouldn’t be doing 40 routes a day, speeding through parking lots, trying to hurry up and deliver the next package.”
In her video, Shannon noted that the…