In a few American locations, delivery drivers for Amazon and baristas for Starbucks are going on strike in an effort to pressure the two large corporations to either recognize them as unionized workers or agree to a first labor contract.
The strikes that began on Thursday and Friday came after other recent confrontations between organized labor and corporate America. In the wake of strikes by Boeing plant workers, dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports, video game actors, and hotel and casino employees on the Las Vegas Strip, large and well-established labor organizations were able to obtain significant employer concessions this year.
However, employees at well-known consumer firms like Amazon, Starbucks, and others are still battling for their initial contracts. Even while the influential Teamsters union claims to represent drivers and warehouse workers, Amazon refuses to recognize their organizing efforts, despite the fact that many of them have voted to become a union. Although it had committed to negotiating a contract by the end of the year, Starbucks had long opposed the unionization of its locations.
Why are the strikes taking place at this time?
Strikes, especially those that take place over the holidays, when business is booming, might provide unions more negotiating power or allow them to show off their strength by winning over supportive customers and employees.
After the COVID-19 outbreak, Amazon and Starbucks experienced a surge in organizational activities. The pandemic brought front-line workers and the effects of economic disparity on wage-earning Americans’ lives into the spotlight.
In bookstores, where unions are uncommon, workers organized. Their campaigns were effective at several Apple, Trader Joe’s, and outdoor gear stores.
However, it can be difficult to convert those victories into contracts. Workers at the Seattle-based coffee and e-commerce behemoths, Amazon and Starbucks, who were not unionized prior to the outbreak, have yet to reach a deal with the companies.
The workers at Amazon and Starbucks, according to John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, are desperate to make progress before President-elect Donald Trump appoints a Republican majority to the National Labor Relations Board, which is anticipated to be less pro-union under his administration.
Logan stated in a written statement that the unions wish to impose political pressure on the firms and make these disagreements public. The unions and workers will most likely lose if these issues continue into the following year and are mostly contested in the courts and labor board. Before Trump takes office, this may be their last and best opportunity to publicly pressure the firms.
Trump has, however, also shown some indications that he may be more accommodating to workers in his second term than in his first. He appointed a Republican congresswoman with substantial union support, including the Teamsters, to head the Department of Labor in his new administration last month: Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer. This past summer, Teamsters President Sean O. Brien also gave a speech at the Republican National Convention.
Amazon strikes headed by teamsters
The Teamsters claim that because Amazon disregarded a deadline the union set for contract negotiations on Sunday, employees are going on strike at seven delivery locations in Southern California, San Francisco, New York City, Atlanta, and Skokie, Illinois. According to the Teamsters, workers will also go on strike at a well-known warehouse in New York at midnight on Saturday. The warehouse chose to associate with the Teamsters after voting to join the nascent Amazon Labor Union in 2022.
The well-known labor organization claims that it is pushing for better pay, benefits, and safer working conditions for Amazon workers, many of whom face financial instability while working for a $2.3 trillion firm. The number of Amazon truckers and warehouse employees joining the walkout has not been disclosed.
Organizing delivery drivers—whom the corporation claims are not its employees because they work directly for contractors that Amazon hired to transport packages—has been the union’s primary goal.
This kind of arrangement provides Amazon with greater protection against attempts at unionization in the Teamsters-dominated transportation and trucking sector. Nonetheless, the union has argued before the National Labor Relations Board that the drivers, who drive vans of the same color and wear the gray-blue vests that Amazon is known for, need to be considered workers of the corporation.
The union has been charged by the online retailer with spreading a misleading narrative about the thousands of workers it purports to represent. Amazon has also praised its compensation, claiming that its warehouse and transportation workers receive a base salary of $22 per hour in addition to perks. Additionally, it just increased the subcontracted delivery drivers’ hourly wages.
The NLRB, which has adopted a more pro-labor posture under President Joe Biden, filed a complaint in September and determined that the drivers were Amazon joint employees. Amazon was also charged by the agency with illegally neglecting to negotiate a contract for drivers at a delivery hub in California with the Teamsters.
Thousands of workers at the massive fulfillment center in New York City who chose to be represented by the Amazon Labor Union are among the Amazon warehouse workers that the Teamsters union claims to represent.
Amazon contested the results of the 2022 warehouse election, claiming that the vote was rigged by the federal labor board and the Amazon Labor Union. Last year, a regional NLRB director filed a complaint alleging that Amazon had broken the law by declining to engage in union negotiations.
Amazon and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are also contesting the NLRB’s constitutionality in federal court. The Supreme Court sided with Starbucks in a case filed by the corporation in June, making it more difficult for the agency to obtain court orders in labor conflicts.
Negotiations for a contract at Starbucks
In contrast to Amazon, Starbucks has been negotiating contracts.
However, Starbucks has not fulfilled a February pledge to achieve a labor agreement this year, according to Starbucks Workers United, the union that has organized employees at 535 company-owned U.S. locations since 2021.
Additionally, the union wants Starbucks to settle unresolved legal matters, such as hundreds of unfair labor practice complaints that employees have submitted to the National Labor Relations Board. Hundreds more accusations against Amazon have also been launched or resolved by the agency.
Workers United alleged that Starbucks offered an economic package that would not raise wages for unionized baristas now and would raise them by 1.5% in subsequent years. This was the basis for the strikes that began Friday in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Starbucks claimed that Workers United halted this week’s negotiation round too soon. Additionally, the business claims that baristas who put in at least 20 hours a week already receive $30 per hour in wages and benefits.
Last year, there were two instances of Starbucks employees quitting their jobs. According to Workers United, by Christmas Eve, the most recent strikes may have spread to hundreds of retailers nationwide.
Patricia Campos-Medina, the director of Cornell University’s Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and a Democrat who recently ran for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey, stated that she anticipates increased union activity prior to Trump’s inauguration.
According to Campos-Medina, Trump’s responses will allow the public to witness his dedication to the working class.
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