With just a few days to go until Christmas Day and the start of Hanukkah, the Teamsters launched what they have called “the largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history.” Already, the strike is having an impact in cities across the U.S.
A press release from the Teamsters said the strike began at 6 a.m. EST Thursday, six days before Christmas morning. It followed “Amazon’s repeated refusal to follow the law and bargain with the thousands of Amazon workers who organized with the Teamsters,” said the labor union.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them.”
Amazon told FOX Business that it doesn’t expect the strike to impact operations, even as we head deeper into a season when many are waiting for holiday packages to arrive on time.
According to the Teamsters, workers in New York City, N.Y.; Atlanta, Ga.; Southern California; San Francisco, Calif.; and Skokie, Ill., are participating in the strike and other Amazon Teamsters at other facilities were prepared to join them. Teamsters local unions also planned to put up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers across the nation.
WBBM reported Thursday that delivery drivers working for an Amazon facility in Skokie were poised to strike.
“Amazon is one of the biggest, richest corporations in the world,” said Gabriel Irizarry, a driver in Skokie, as quoted by the Teamsters. “They talk a big game about taking care of their workers, but when it comes down to it, Amazon does not respect us and our right to negotiate for better working conditions and wages. We can’t even afford to pay our bills.”
In Southern California, the strike began at 3 a.m., with pickets appearing at the city of Industry, Palmdale, Victorville, and at an airport hub at the San Bernardino International Airport, Audacy station KNX Newsradio reported.
Near Pittsburgh, Pa., Teamsters union leaders and members were picketing outside an Amazon facility in Imperial Thursday morning, and Audacy station KDKA Newsradio’s Timira Rush was at the scene.
“We’re here because we have organized over 9,000 Amazon workers across the country and over 20 facilities and Amazon is just refusing to acknowledge it and sit down and bargain at all, let alone in good faith,” Kevin Schmidt, the head of Local Teamsters 249, told the station. “So, today, across the county, there were strategic buildings picked out and this is one of them and we’re putting up picket lines, the ball’s in Amazon’s court.”
On 8 Mile Road in Detroit, Mich., a man was hit by a semi-truck while on the picket line Thursday morning, reported Audacy station WWJ Newsradio. The worker was not seriously injured, per the report.
“(We were) slowly walking across the driveway. This non-union driver come up the driveway faster then you’re supposed to enter a driveway; you’re supposed to enter a driveway at a slow pace,” Teamsters Michigan President Kevin Moore said. “We were walking in a row, and my guy Roy was behind me. The truck come up and instead of stopping, banged into him. He didn’t fall down, thank God, but you don’t enter an egress like that.”
Leah Pensler, a warehouse worker in San Francisco said the efforts of those on strike are “historic.”
“We are fighting against a vicious union-busting campaign, and we are going to win,” Pensler said.
Dia Ortiz, a worker on the other side of the country in New York, said: “We’re ready to do what it takes to win this one.”
According to the Teamsters, Amazon is the second-largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list. At the same time, it said that “the company fails to pay its workers enough to make ends meet,” and close to 10,000 Amazon workers have joined the Teamsters to fight for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.
“Amazon said the union is misleading the public,” WBBM reported of the company’s response to the strike in its coverage of the striking workers in Skokie. A statement from Amazon indicated that the workers are subcontractors who work for third-party companies and are not eligible for representation as Amazon employees.