Teamsters strike against Amazon beginning
Workers at seven Amazon factories will go on strike Thursday morning, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said, as workers began picketing at at least one location as the union worked to pressure the e-commerce giant to reach a labor deal during the critical shopping period. Wire, Located in Queens, New York City.
The Teamsters union said workers who had approved a strike over the past few days were taking to the pavement after Amazon ignored the union’s Dec. 15 deadline for contract negotiations. Amazon said it expected no impact on its operations in what the union called the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters union says it represents nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a fraction of the 1.5 million workers at Amazon’s warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon ranks second Fortune 500 List One of the largest companies in the country.
At a warehouse in New York City’s Staten Island district, thousands of workers voted for Amazon’s union in 2022 and have since joined the Teamsters union. At other facilities, employees — including many delivery drivers — unionized by showing majority support but without holding government-run elections.
Thursday’s strike took place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in San Francisco. Southern CaliforniaNew York City, Atlanta, and chicago suburb skokieIllinois, according to the union’s announcement. The union said Amazon workers at other factories are “ready to join” them.
“Amazon has failed to show workers the respect they deserve, pushing them to the picket line,” Teamsters union president Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to sit down and do the right thing for our members. But they ignored it, ” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking a rerun of the election that resulted in a union win at the Staten Island warehouse where Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon said the delivery drivers the Teamsters Association has been organizing for more than a year are not Amazon employees. Under its business model, drivers work for third-party businesses called delivery service partners, who deliver millions of packages to customers every day.
“For more than a year, the Teamsters Association has been intentionally misleading the public by claiming they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers.’ This is not the case and is yet another attempt to promote a false narrative,” an Amazon spokesperson said. Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The fact is that the Teamsters union actively threatens, intimidates and attempts to coerce Amazon workers and third-party drivers into joining them, which is unlawful and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters union argued that Amazon essentially controls everything its drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor watchdogs backed the unions in filings with the National Labor Relations Board. In September, Amazon raised driver wages amid growing pressure.
