Alexandra Bradbury

Nobody predicted this—we sure didn’t. What Amazon workers in New York pulled off was supposed to be impossible.

An independent union relying almost entirely on volunteer organizers beat one of the world’s biggest and most fiercely anti-union companies.

They did it with an eclectic mix of classic methods and throwing out the rulebook. Instead of organizing an underground campaign, they put up a recruitment tent right outside the warehouse.

To protest the unfair firing of a co-worker, on the morning of Tuesday, December 21 150 UPS drivers in Chicago took a simple action: they didn’t go into work early.

Instead, they gathered outside with an inflatable fat cat. They grilled food, played music, and then walked in together, right on time.

This departure from routine was enough to throw their management into a panic.

A new spirit of defiance is spreading on the wind that whips through the North Pole workshop complex. Elves are chafing against long hours and discovering their increased leverage—both resulting from a labor shortage that has jammed up critical points in the supply chain.

Polar warehouses are stacked to the rafters with gingerbread men no one has frosted and headless nutcrackers awaiting a delayed shipment from the parts plant.