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Amazon union election: Will this former worker make history?

  When former Amazon worker Chris Smalls organised a small protest outside a massive Amazon warehouse in New York two years ago, he didn't intend to pick a years-long fight with one of the world's largest companies. He just wanted his team to be able to do their jobs safely.
"When the pandemic came, employees underneath me were getting sick," he says. "I realised that something was wrong."
Amazon fired him, citing quarantine violations. But his concerns caught the world's attention - an early sign of a much bigger labour battle brewing at the e-commerce giant.
In the following months, as its business surged thanks to the pandemic, Amazon faced accusations around the world that it neglected staff welfare - claims it denied.
In the US, the company now faces its most serious labour unrest in decades.
After walkouts and protests across the country, workers at three warehouses in New York and Alabama are deciding whether to join a labour union - which would be a first for Amazon in the US.
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