Less than a week before Christmas, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced that workers will strike at various Amazon locations throughout the country starting Thursday at 6 a.m. The work stoppage is due to a union claim that Amazon has repeatedly rejected bargaining requests with “thousands of Amazon workers who organized with the Teamsters,” read a press release.
The Teamsters website promoted the announcement of the strike as the “largest strike against Amazon in American history.” Approximately 10,000 workers are expected to participate in the work stoppage. It comes during the busiest shopping time of the year, when people buy gifts for the Christmas holiday—something that Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien noted.
“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,” O’Brien said. “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.”
The strike affects only Amazon locations where workers have voted to unionize: Atlanta, Georgia; New York City, New York; San Francisco, California; Skokie, Illinois; and Southern California, according to the release. The union also announced it would hold picket lines at numerous Amazon fulfillment centers nationwide.
“What we’re doing is historic,” said Leah Pensler, a warehouse worker in San Francisco. “We are fighting against a vicious union-busting campaign, and we are going to win.”
Amazon’s wealth was mentioned in the union’s press release, and many soon-to-be striking workers slammed it, calling the company greedy, given its affluence. Some unionized Amazon workers criticized its company for not paying workers enough despite ranking as the second-largest company on the Fortune Global 500 list.
“Amazon is one of the biggest, richest corporations in the world,” said Gabriel Irizarry, a driver from Skokie, Ill. “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.”
Amazon has refuted many of the claims. Furthermore, in response to the strike, an Amazon spokesperson told ABC News that Teamsters illegally pressured workers to join the union.
“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,” said Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.”
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Nantel emphasized that Amazon had increased its starting wage for its drivers and workers in fulfillment centers by 20%. She also mentioned a September salary increase that raised the company’s base wages for workers to $22 per hour. The federal minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25 per hour.
Among the states where workers are striking, Amazon’s $22 per hour is higher than each of their state’s minimum wage salaries. California has the highest minimum wage at $16 per hour, followed by New York at $15 per hour, Illinois at $14 per hour, and Georgia at $5.15 per hour.
