WASHINGTON—Fed up with company labor law-breaking by refusing to bargain with their Amazon Labor Union, nearly 10,000 Teamsters, drivers and warehouse workers too, have gone on strike, starting at 6 am on December 19.
Among the East and West Coast locations for the strike and the picket lines are ones at warehouses in metro New York, JFK8 on Staten Island, and DBK4 in Queens.
The then-independent Amazon Labor Union, now a semi-independent Teamsters local covering all of metro New York, won a union recognition election at the Staten Island warehouse two years ago.
Amazon still refuses to bargain with the workers there and elsewhere, making the strike a labor law-breaking, formally called unfair labor practices, strike.
Key issues for workers are extremely low pay and extremely hazardous working conditions. Though Amazon employs one-third of all warehouse workers in the U.S., its reported injuries account for more than half in that category.
And a recent Senate Labor Committee report based on interviews with hundreds of workers, plus internal documents and OSHA reports, shows Amazon often covers up injuries through having company doctors examine injured drivers and others and then rushes them back to work.
The union timed the strike for maximum impact against the $2 trillion behemoth by calling it during Amazon’s busiest, and most profitable, period, the winter holiday season. It gave the firm a December 15 deadline to open bargaining, waited four extra days for Amazon to respond, then workers walked.
“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 President Sean O’Brien in a statement.
“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.”
Besides picketing at the two New York City locations, Teamsters at the DGT8 warehouse in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Ga., three warehouses in Southern California, the DCK6 warehouse in San Francisco and the DIL7 warehouse in Skokie, Ill., near O’Hare Airport, are striking, the union reported.
The Skokie workers have been on an informational picket line for months, telling customers and the media that a majority of them signed union recognition cards, but bosses refuse to recognize the union—and about ergonomic injuries and other hazards within the warehouse due to breakneck speeds.
After marching through their warehouse, the Alpharetta workers presented National Labor Relations Board union election recognition cards, and a petition, to their managers just weeks ago. Since a majority of workers there had signed the documents, they demanded card-check recognition.
Other Teamsters locals plan “primary picket lines” at other Amazon fulfillment centers, the parent union said. It expects warehouse workers and drivers—even without union contracts—to exercise their legal right to refuse to cross the lines.
“What we’re doing is historic,” San Francisco warehouse worker Leah Pensler told the union. “We are fighting against a vicious union-busting campaign, and we are going to win.”
Amazon spent thousands of dollars a day on union-busters unsuccessfully trying to stop the original Amazon Labor Union organizing drive on Staten Island.
“Amazon is one of the biggest, richest corporations in the world,” said Skokie warehouse driver Gabriel Irizarry. “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.”
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