Thousands of Amazon workers at several locations around the country were expected to join a strike on Thursday in a campaign launched by the Teamsters union to press the retail giant to recognize its unionized workers in the U.S.
The strike, expected to center around seven Amazon facilities nationwide, comes during the holiday-shopping rush and could be the country’s biggest union action against Amazon yet. The company early Thursday said it hasn’t seen any impact on operations and was “continuing to focus on getting customers their holiday orders.”
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says it represents about 10,000 Amazon staff and contractors, at warehouses, delivery and air hubs. Amazon has refused to recognize the union for years; the retail giant employs about 1.5 million people, excluding part-timers and contractors.
Now, warehouse workers and delivery drivers at seven facilities have organized a strike to push the company to negotiate for a collective-bargaining contract, including changes to pay, benefits and working conditions. Workers in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Skokie, Ill., planned to take to the picket line.
And the Teamsters say they are also organizing picket lines at “hundreds” of additional warehouses and delivery hubs, encouraging non-unionized workers to picket under the U.S. labor law that protects workers’ right to take collective action to advance their interests.
“These workers are exercising their power,” Randy Korgan, the Teamsters’ national director for Amazon, told NPR. “They now realize there is a pathway to take on a corporate giant like this – that they hold the power.”
Amazon, in turn, accuses the Teamsters of misrepresenting the strikes, saying the participants are “entirely” outsiders, rather than company employees or contractors.
“The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and have brought in outsiders to come and harass and intimidate our team,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t.”
The Teamsters told NPR the strike would last longer than a day, but did not say how long. Workers would be provided strike pay by the union, at a rate of $1,000 a week, the union said.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”
The Teamsters had given Amazon until Dec. 15 to come to the table to negotiate a collective-bargaining contract with its unionized workers. Amazon has fought all union efforts in court and argues unions weren’t right for its workers, touting the pay and benefits the company already provides. Amazon has faced multiple accusations of unfair labor practices, including for firing labor organizers. It has also disputed its formal status as an employer of contract workers.
The Teamsters had for years organized Amazon delivery drivers and other workers, pushing for Amazon to recognize their unionization. In June, Amazon’s first unionized warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y. — two years after making history by voting to join the upstart Amazon Labor Union — also affiliated with the Teamsters.
The union is among the most powerful in the U.S. and Canada, representing 1.3 million people.
Amazon workers in Germany on Thursday said they planned to strike along with their U.S. counterparts, according to the German United Services Union. Amazon has in the past faced strikes in Germany and Spain around the holidays to demand better pay and work conditions.
“It is the holiday season. People are expecting deliveries. This is the moment that the the the the workers have influence over the supply chain,” said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University.
The Teamsters points out Amazon’s profits had soared during the pandemic and since then. The company is now valued more than $2.3 trillion, and it reported net income of $15 billion in the latest quarter alone. It’s the second largest private employer in the U.S. behind Walmart.
Editor’s note: Amazon is among NPR’s recent financial supporters.