Teamsters strike against Amazon in seven states
The Teamsters union is running the largest organized Amazon work stoppage in U.S. history.
Starting Thursday, Dec. 19, Amazon employees who are members of the Teamsters have joined the union’s picket line at delivery stations in New York City, Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco, and Skokie, Ill.
Teamsters local unions are also putting up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon fulfillment centers nationwide. According to the union, Amazon warehouse workers and drivers without collective bargaining agreements have the legal right to honor these picket lines by withholding their labor. Nearly 10,000 Amazon workers have joined the Teamsters, the union said.
"If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed," said Teamsters general president Sean M. O'Brien in a statement. "We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it."
According to CNN, Amazon says the timeliness of its holiday deliveries will not be affected by this action. An Amazon spokesperson told CNN that the Teamsters union does not actually represent any employees who work on the Amazon payroll.
"There are a lot of nuances here but I want to be clear, the Teamsters don’t represent any Amazon employees despite their claims to the contrary," an Amazon spokesperson told CNN in a statement. "This entire narrative is a PR play and the Teamsters’ conduct this past year, and this week is illegal."
The striking employees work for a third-party contractor, but under U.S. labor law Amazon can be considered a joint employer. Amazon is challenging that rule.
Employees at Amazon’s warehouse in the Staten Island borough of New York City were the first to vote to unionize, in June 2022. Unionized delivery drivers and dispatchers walked out of an Amazon partner distribution facility in Palmdale, Calif. in June 2023, although Amazon said the action had no significant impact on its delivery service.
[Read more: Amazon warehouse workers make historic union vote]
Following that strike, in September 2023 Amazon pledged $840 million in incremental investment over time in expanded pay, educational opportunities and family support for contract drivers that are part of its Delivery Service Partners (DSP) program.
The e-tailer followed up in September 2024 by providing DSP participants an hourly raise of 7% to nearly $22 an hour from $20.50 and making an incremental investment of more than $2.1 billion in the DSP program going toward safety programs, rate cards, training, services and incentives.
