In what they say is the biggest strike against the delivery behemoth in history, the Teamsters union announced a walkout against Amazon Thursday morning, with workers forming picket lines in four states.
Amidst the flurry of last-minute holiday present deliveries, the strike occurs just one week before Christmas.
Workers from a facility in New York City, another in Atlanta, three in Southern California, one in San Francisco, and one in Skokie, Illinois, which is just outside of Chicago, went on strike at 6 a.m. ET.
According to a news release from the Teamsters, about 10,000 Amazon employees have joined the union. The $2 trillion tech and retail conglomerate employs 1.5 million workers, of which that is only a small portion.
According to the union’s press statement, the work stoppage occurred when Amazon failed to show up for the bargaining table by the deadline of December 15.
You can hold Amazon accountable for its unquenchable greed if your package is delayed over the holidays. We set a firm deadline for Amazon to attend the meeting and treat our members fairly. In a statement, Teamsters General President Sean M. O. Brien said that they disregarded it.
These avaricious executives have every opportunity to be decent and respectful of those who enable their heinous riches. Instead, they are now paying the price for pushing workers to the limit. He went on to say, “This strike is on them.”
The Teamster’s assertions are being denied by Amazon.
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 Amazon representative Kelly Nantel, they don’t, and this is just another effort to spread a misleading story.
According to Nantel, the Teamsters have attempted to intimidate and pressure third-party drivers and Amazon workers to join them, which is against the law and is the focus of several ongoing unfair labor practice cases against the union.
Amazon stated that its workers are free to join a union if they so choose and that the company currently provides competitive compensation, health benefits, and career advancement opportunities—all of which are demands made by numerous unions.
On Thursday, only roughly half of the roughly fifty demonstrators at the fulfillment site in the city of Industry, east of Los Angeles, were dressed in Amazon uniforms. Teamsters members were present to provide support.
All of the individuals who told NBC News that they actually work for Amazon were drivers who are employed by other companies that have agreements with Amazon.
However, they claimed that they view themselves as Amazon employees since, in the words of delivery driver Alfred Munoz, they have authority over our routes. The number of packages we deliver is at their control.
Munoz added that they must wear the Amazon uniforms as required by the firm.
Julio Fuentes, another delivery driver, stated that he makes 200 stops and travels roughly 200 miles every day.
He said, “It’s just way too much.”
At the height of the day, nearly all of the about 25 protesters in Alpharetta, Georgia, claimed to be Amazon workers. Two members of an unaffiliated union and representatives from UPS Teamsters were also there.
About ten employees who were interviewed by NBC News all claimed to be delivery drivers who would have been on duty on Thursday. They said that each of them worked for a third party.
A request for confirmation of the number of striking employees in Georgia was not immediately answered by the Teamsters.
According to the demonstrators, perhaps 50 to 60 of the 1,000 drivers who are frequently sent out from the Alpharetta station are union members.
While many of the workers were vague when NBC News asked what their demands were, citing higher pay and better working conditions, others said it felt like they were putting their bodies on the line delivering packages and should be compensated fairly for it.
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