Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) urged Amazon leaders to provide an open town hall, free from retaliation, for workers who wish to unionize at three facilities in the area, becoming the top elected official to back the North Carolina union campaign to date.
Since it launched out of an Amazon warehouse in Garner in 2022, the union campaign, known as Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, has filed more than a dozen unfair labor practice complaints. Key supporters of the union, including co-founder Rev. Ryan Brown, say they were terminated by Amazon in retaliation for their roles in the campaign.
Ryan Brown, a former pastor and president of CAUSE, speaks at a rally outside a Durham, N.C., Amazon warehouse on Nov. 3, 2025. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)“I know that many workers at all three facilities support unionization and are members of CAUSE,” Foushee wrote in a letter to local Amazon leadership on Friday. “A refusal to allow an open forum for the free airing of competing viewpoints on unionization raises serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and respect for the local workforce.”
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. In November, spokeswoman Eileen Hards said the company respects the right to decide whether or not to join a union.
“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have,” Hards said in a statement. “We favor opportunities for each person to be respected and valued as an individual, and to have their unique voice heard by working directly with our team.”
Foushee lauded the workers for their “courage” in a statement Friday and said Amazon must show “respect for hardworking people in our community.”
“I expect the company to comply with its workers’ demands, and I will continue to explore avenues in Congress through inquiries like these, or legislation, to ensure that workers do not have their right to collectively bargain taken away from them,” she told NC Newsline.
Orin Starn, a Duke professor who is one of the coordinators of CAUSE’s Durham campaign, said he hopes the company will listen to Foushee and allow workers to “decide for themselves” if a union is right for them.
“We’re very grateful for her support,” Starn said. “Fighting for working people and fighting for Durham and fighting for people to be able to make enough at Amazon to feed their families — that’s part of the fight that we think is important, and we’re delighted that the Congresswoman sees it that way.”
Delivery trucks passed during a rally to unionize Amazon’s RDU5 warehouse in Durham on the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, with some honking their support. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)Starn said that since the Durham portion of the union campaign launched in November, the three facilities have been awash in a “full press of union-busting.” The campaign has filed more than a dozen unfair labor practice complaints since 2022, when it launched out of an Amazon warehouse in Raleigh.
In recent days, screens and posters throughout the warehouses have warned workers that “CAUSE can tell you anything they want” and “could trade away benefits important to you,” according to photos provided by Starn. Messages in Amazon’s employee management app told employees they “could lose their right to choose” if a union campaign is successful, screenshots reviewed by NC Newsline showed.
“Workers deserve to have a debate about this,” Starn said. “Not just to be bombarded every time they go to work with this very one-sided anti-union message that is Amazon’s stock and trade.”
In letters earlier this month, CAUSE asked Amazon to agree to hold open town halls with workers at the three facilities, requesting a response by March 1.
Last June, the Durham City Council passed a resolution that “enthusiastically encourages” the Amazon workers to unionize. Local officials like Durham City Councilor Nate Baker have appeared at events backing the CAUSE campaign. But Foushee is the first member of Congress to publicly weigh in on their behalf.
Nida Allam spoke at a rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders in Durham on Feb. 13, 2026. (Photo: Christine Zhu/NC Newsline)The letter comes as Foushee is locked in a close primary race with challenger Nida Allam, a Durham County commissioner who has the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), one of the most prominent pro-labor voices on the left.
The race has put pressure on Foushee to assert her progressive bona fides, such as when she publicly disavowed funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after constituent backlash over the war in Gaza.
Allam did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Foushee’s letter or her position on the CAUSE campaign. Her campaign site says she supports labor rights, saying workers should be “treated with dignity in the workplace” and receive higher wages.
“North Carolina’s disastrous right-to-work laws have rigged the system in favor of big corporations; they’ve denied North Carolina workers the opportunity to bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions,” Allam’s website states.
Underscoring the closeness of the race, Gov. Josh Stein (D-N.C.) weighed in through a video to voters, urging them to head to the polls early to cast ballots for Foushee, who he previously served alongside in the state Senate. “In Washington, she will never stop fighting on the issues that matter most to us: investing in quality education, protecting affordable health care, and defending our fundamental freedoms,” Stein said.
Early voting in North Carolina’s primary elections began on Feb. 12 and will continue until 3 p.m. on Feb. 28. Election Day voting in the primary will be held on March 3.
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