With just a weekto go before Christmas Day, the Teamsters union has launched a strike against Amazon. The timing is no coincidence.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” said Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”
The work stoppage began early Thursday at Amazon facilities in New York, Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Skokie, Ill. The union said members at other facilities are prepared to join them.
Teamsters local unions are also putting up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers nationwide. Amazon warehouse workers and drivers without collective bargaining agreements have the legal right to honor these picket lines by withholding their labor, the union said.
The company’s response
Amazon said the Teamsters union represents a small percentage of its drivers, most of whom are not employed by Amazon but by third-party partners.
“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, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon said in a statement.
Amazon said it does not expect the strike to affect its operations, even at one of the busiest times of the year.