A new nonprofit signals Chris Smalls, president of Amazon's labor union, may be pursuing new projects

• Amazon Labor Union's president, Chris Smalls, has registered a new nonprofit.
• The move signals that the union leader may be pursuing new projects.

Chris Smalls, the president of Amazon's labor union, has registered a new nonprofit, signaling that he may be turning his attention to projects beyond the unionizing effort that's turned him into a national labor figure.

Smalls — who first rose to fame in 2020 for leading a unionization effort at the Staten Island Amazon warehouse where he worked — launched the new organization in February, along with several of his fellow organizers, under the same name as a previous group he ran, The Congress of Essential Workers.

Smalls' leadership of the Amazon Labor Union has been called into question in recent months, amid stalled organizing momentum and election losses at two other facilities. Smalls' frequent travel and media appearances have also raised concerns among some Amazon Labor Union members that his rising public profile is drawing him away from the grueling, day-to-day work of labor organizing.

In early December, Smalls was caught on camera fighting a former Amazon Labor Union organizer who had been threatening him after becoming particularly upset about Smalls' growing fame. The internal rift culminated days later, when several key organizers left the union.

Smalls previously told Insider that criticisms of his leadership were unfair, and his supporters have alleged critics attempted to launch a "coup" against Smalls.

The new nonprofit is led by Smalls and three of his closest allies. Although the new group does intend to raise funds for the Amazon Labor Union, according to its certificate of incorporation, it also has bigger ambitions beyond Amazon.

Gerald Bryson, one of the directors of the new nonprofit, said that the nonprofit's ultimate goal is to promote labor organizing at other companies "whenever we finish with Amazon, whenever this whole ordeal is pretty much under control, and everyone's falling in line."

But Rutgers labor professor Susan Schurman warned that even beginning to think of the next big project could be detrimental to the success of the ALU.

She said the most important thing that ALU leadership can do right now is secure a contract with Amazon.

"There may be people who think it's great that clearly this guy's a charismatic leader, they're thinking beyond organizing at Amazon," Schurman told Insider. "But the fact is a contract with Amazon at that warehouse would be a huge win for organizing everywhere."