31 Facts About Chris Smalls

Christian Smalls was born on July 4,1988 and is an American labor organizer known for his role in leading Amazon worker organization in Staten Island, a borough in New York City.

Chris Smalls is a co-founder and the former president of the Amazon Labor Union.

On March 30,2020, Chris Smalls organized a walkout to protest what he said was a lack of proper safety protocols around COVID-19 exposures at the Staten Island warehouse he worked at, Amazon JFK8.

Chris Smalls was terminated the same day for what the company stated was violating the company's social distancing policies during a required, paid quarantine.

Chris Smalls had been exposed to the disease on March 11,2020, but was not notified or required to quarantine until March 28, after the incubation period had ended.

Chris Smalls was named one of Time's most influential people of 2022.

Chris Smalls was born and raised in Hackensack, New Jersey by a single mother who worked as an administrator at a hospital.

Chris Smalls had hoped to play in the National Basketball Association, until he was run over in a hit and run while working a job as a car attendant.

Chris Smalls attended a community college in Florida, but missed his home after one semester, and returned to New York to study sound engineering at the Institute of Audio Research.

Chris Smalls said he dropped out because he thought he was "hot shit" and started making music as a rapper, touring briefly with Meek Mill.

Chris Smalls then gave up his music career pursuit to support his children with a series of jobs, including at Walmart, Home Depot, and MetLife Stadium from 2012 to 2015.

Chris Smalls joined Amazon in 2015 as a picker in New Jersey.

Chris Smalls transferred briefly to a warehouse in Connecticut, where he was fired and reinstated after an appeal.

Chris Smalls was transferred to the Staten Island warehouse when it opened in 2018, and worked as an assistant manager.

Chris Smalls said that he was transferred because of good performance, but applied for management positions 49 times during his career, and was never selected for the promotion, which he believes was reflective of systemic racial discrimination he observed in the company.

Chris Smalls said that he liked working at the company for a while, until he started to recognize what he alleged to be "deep systemic" issues within the company.

Chris Smalls contacted local politicians, health officials, and Amazon's human resources, after an extremely ill colleague was allowed to come to work with symptoms while waiting on the results of a COVID-19 test.

Chris Smalls challenged the company's personal protections and lack of social distancing, and alleged that it failed to disclose a worker's COVID-19 illness to the workforce.

Chris Smalls had been exposed to the confirmed case on March 11,2020, but was not notified until March 28,2020, prompting him to file a complaint with the New York State Department of Health.

The company's senior vice president of policy and press, former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, claimed on Twitter that Chris Smalls had violated the company's social distancing policies, and that he was on a paid 14-day quarantine after being exposed to someone who had tested positive for COVID-19 when he staged the walkout.

James's investigation found that the company had illegally terminated Chris Smalls, and filed for an injunction that would force Amazon to rehire Chris Smalls.

Zapolsky denied knowing that Chris Smalls was Black at the time of his statements, and released a statement saying he was "frustrated and upset" that an Amazon worker would "endanger the health and safety of other [Amazon workers]".

Chris Smalls said that unionizing is important for job security, living wages, paid time off, and medical leave.

Chris Smalls said that two of the organizers, current Amazon employees have been living out of their cars.

Chris Smalls has accused the company of union busting, including posting anti-union signs in the bathrooms, sending anti-union text messages to workers, surveilling organizing workers, and holding mandatory meetings with anti-union "falsehoods", like that in signing an authorization card "you give up the right to speak for yourself".

Chris Smalls alleged that Amazon is warning its workers of expensive union dues, and harassing and scaring employees.

Chris Smalls said he combatted the anti-union push by exposing it to the public and providing pro-union messaging, like that "unionized workers make $11,000 more per year than non-union workers on average," an amount much higher than the average cost of union dues.

In May 2022, Chris Smalls met US President Joe Biden at the White House.

On November 12,2020, Chris Smalls filed a class-action lawsuit against Amazon alleging the company violated federal and state law by putting warehouse workers at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic and by terminating him.

Chris Smalls was married for seven years, and has three children, including a set of twins.

Chris Smalls is active on Twitter, where he tweets about the ALU and other labor organizing issues.