A group of defectors within the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) filed a complaint Monday in federal court alleging that union president Christian Smalls refused to hold officer elections while replacing and threatening dissenting members. Smalls denied the allegations, telling The New York Times via text that the complaint is “a ridiculous claim with zero facts or merit.” But the growing rift in the ALU has grown troublesome for Smalls and the union’s broader organizing efforts. The group behind the lawsuit calls itself the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus, a coordinated collection of reformists who claim that the “ALU is making no progress” and they “want to fix that.” They’ve been operating independently from the rest of the ALU this year, ever since Smalls unveiled a new union constitution in December that—the lawsuit claims—was changed without approval from the members.
