“We had no money,” recalls Derrick Palmer. “We didn’t have advice. All we had was two tables and two tents. We said: ‘You know what, let’s do a worker-led movement. Let’s just shoot our shot.’”

Palmer, who works at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island, is vice president for organizing for the independent Amazon Labor Union (ALU). He and his co-workers shocked the world in March of 2022, when a grassroots operation, funded and organized by workers themselves, beat back an aggressive anti-worker campaign from one of the world’s largest and wealthiest corporations to establish the first-ever labor union at one of Amazon’s U.S. facilities.

A shattered arm. A cover-up of safety violations. Workers dying, with minimal penalties for employers.

That’s the kind of testimony rank-and-file workers and safety advocates brought to Washington DC last week. The occasion was a first-ever Workers’ Voice Summit, convened by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency responsible for workplace safety.

“When we come together, we can win” was the rallying call by Dr. Linda Rae Murray that launched the 10th annual National Conference on Worker Safety and Health (COSHCON2021) in December.

Our growing movement for safe and fair workplaces is at a pivotal moment. Workers and families are confronting a deadly pandemic; heat stress, extreme weather, and abuse and indifference from unfair employers.