In an attempt to pressure the online retailer for a labor agreement during a crucial shopping season, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced that employees at seven Amazon locations will go on strike Thursday morning.
The Teamsters claim that after Amazon disregarded a deadline the union set for contract negotiations on December 15, the employees, who had approved strikes in recent days, are now joining the picket line. During what the union refers to as the biggest strike against the firm in American history, Amazon says it does not anticipate any impact on its operations.
The Teamsters claim to speak for almost 10,000 employees at ten Amazon locations, which is a tiny percentage of the 1.5 million people that Amazon employs in its corporate headquarters and warehouses.
Thousands of workers at a warehouse in the Staten Island borough of New York City who supported the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 have subsequently joined the Teamsters. Employees at the other sites, including a large number of delivery drivers, have united with them through majority support without the need for elections run by the government.
According to the union’s notice, there will be strikes on Thursday at six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, and Skokie, Illinois, as well as one Amazon warehouse in San Francisco, California. According to the union, Amazon employees at the other locations are ready to join.
According to a statement from Teamsters General President Sean M. O. Brien, Amazon is driving its employees closer to the picket line by not treating them with the respect they deserve.
The Teamsters now represent the warehouse on Staten Island, where the Seattle-based online retailer has been attempting to repeat the election that resulted in the union victory. The business has also filed a lawsuit contesting the National Labor Relations Board’s constitutionality.
The Teamsters have been organizing delivery drivers for almost a year, but Amazon claims that they are not its employees. According to its business model, the drivers deliver millions of products to clients every day on behalf of third-party companies known as Delivery Service Partners.
The Teamsters have been purposefully misleading the public for over a year by claiming to speak for thousands of Amazon drivers and staff. According to a statement from Amazon spokesman Kelly Nantel, they don’t, and this is just another effort to spread a misleading story.
According to the Teamsters, Amazon should be considered an employer since it effectively controls all of the drivers’ actions. In filings before the NLRB, a few U.S. labor regulators have taken the union’s side. Amazon increased the drivers’ compensation in September in response to the mounting demand.
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