Amazon workers arrive with paperwork to unionize at the NLRB office in Brooklyn, New York, October 25, 2021.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Top labor groups and political action committees are distancing themselves from a major Democratic pollster after it was revealed that the firm worked on Amazon‘s anti-labor efforts at a warehouse on New York’s Staten Island.
In late March, CNBC reported that Amazon tapped Global Strategy Group, an influential polling and consulting firm, to help with campaign materials at several Staten Island facilities, including JFK8, the site of a successful union drive earlier this month.
GSG is well known on Capitol Hill and in Democratic political circles. It served as a polling partner for a pro-Biden super PAC ahead of the 2020 election and maintains a high-profile roster of political and corporate clients, including Google and Facebook.
“This is really really disgusting,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote in a tweet after CNBC’s story was published.
In a sign of solidarity with the Amazon Labor Union and a strengthening labor movement more broadly, the AFT and several of GSG’s other past clients are distancing themselves from the firm and pledging not to do business with it in the future. That all follows a campaign that ultimately didn’t pay off.
On April 1, the JFK8 election tally showed that, by a wide margin, employees voted to unionize, the first time that’s happened at an Amazon facility in the U.S. A week later, Amazon filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing the election process was tainted.
President Joe Biden, who promised to be “the most pro-union president,” expressed his support for unionization efforts at Amazon on April 6, remarking, “By the way, Amazon, here we come. Watch.”
GSG initially tried to keep its work with Amazon quiet. But facing blowback from clients, the firm is now apologizing for working on the campaign.
“While there have been factual inaccuracies in recent reports about our work for Amazon, being involved in any way was a mistake, we have resigned that work, and we are deeply sorry,” said Tanya Meck, a partner and managing director at GSG, in a statement.
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A movement with momentum
Among the groups cutting ties with GSG is the Service Employees International Union, one of the largest labor unions in the country. SEIU has spent $1.74 million on GSG’s services since 2005, according to Department of Labor records. As recently as last year, the SEIU paid GSG $66,500 for voter polling services, the filings show.
An SEIU spokesperson told CNBC that the union’s national office won’t employ GSG in the future.
Weingarten said the AFT, which hasn’t worked with GSG in several years, won’t be returning as a client. Labor Department records show that AFT paid GSG about $160,000 for polling and consulting services between 2013 and 2014.
“There are many consultants who have…
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