STATEN ISLAND, New York— The Amazon Labor Union Teamsters of ALU-IBT Local 1 launched a midnight strike at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island back on December 21. It was one of many parts of a first-ever nationwide strike on U.S. soil aimed at forcing e-commerce giant Amazon to the bargaining table.
For 11 hours, workers and their supporters held the picket line at the entrance to the logistics park, braving the icy wind and the cold watch of police officers from all four Staten Island precincts and the Patrol Borough of Staten Island. Inside the warehouse, the holiday season rush continued, but outside, a different kind of energy pulsed.
Truckers honked in support as they passed the JFK8 bus stop inside the park, where the union set up tents and a bus where workers could eat, recover from the cold, and regroup. Fliers depicting Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos as the Grinch fluttered in the wind, a visual reminder of the workers’ grievances. Just days before, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s executive chair, was busy meeting with President-elect Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
The union demanded that Amazon recognize their union and negotiate a contract by December 15. This demand came at a crucial time for the company, as Amazon anticipates a 7% to 11% increase in fourth-quarter sales over 2023, adding up to somewhere between $181.5 billion and $188.5 billion in net sales for the last three months of 2024 alone.
The strike has already drawn a heavy media response from the company, Bezos’ Washington Post, and other corporate media. Satish Jindel, president of ShipMatrix, a software provider that tracks on-time delivery data for package shippers, assured CNN readers that the strike would cause some packages in areas covered by striking workers to take an extra day to ship. In terms of operation, fast and broad strikes are a credible threat to Amazon’s package distribution, especially at peak times of year.
The rally drew support from a wide range of community groups and elected officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, who spoke to union members and supporters that “it’s important that individuals understand that this amazing country was built by working-class people and by the labor movement.”
Despite some media outlets downplaying the strike’s size, its momentum steadily grew from the initial seven walkouts across the country on December 19. Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University, urged those who doubt the effectiveness of the strike to watch the situation unfold closely. “Let’s watch it happen,” she said.
At the heart of the strike were concerns about safety and fair wages. Workers like Keisha Lopez shared stories of unresolved safety issues, injuries, harassment, and targeted firings. Justine Medina, another JFK8 worker, described a harrowing reality: “In my three years here, I’ve seen people pass out on the floor. I’ve seen people break bones. I’ve seen people have terrifying injuries that disable them for the rest of their lives.”
Awaits governor’s signature
Theo Moore of the Alliance of Greater New York (ALIGN) shared that the Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act, passed in the New York State Senate and Assembly early this year, now awaits the New York governor’s signature. ALIGN worked with the Teamsters, RWDSU, and others in the New Yorkers for a Fair Economy coalition to get the legislation into the lawmakers’ hands in the first place. The law would force Amazon to address some safety issues on the job, but, Moore cautioned, “you can’t legislate respect. You have to fight for respect.”
The secretary/treasurer of Teamsters Joint Local 16, Demos Demopoulos offered the workers a warm welcome to the Teamsters: “Two million Teamsters [are] behind you around the country doing the same thing we are right here: making sure that your voices are heard.” Regarding safety and wages, he criticized Amazon’s TV commercials, calling them “bullshit” to shouts of affirmation because they falsely portray the benefits offered to Amazon workers.
New York State Assembly member Claire Valdez, who represents several Queens neighborhoods including Maspeth, where Amazon workers at DBK4 launched a strike on December 19, and Woodside, where DBK1 workers would launch a strike on December 22, was also present. She traveled on “three trains, a ferry, and a bus” from Queens to bring support from the DBK4 picket line. “I was proud to stand in solidarity in Maspeth a couple of days ago against brutal NYPD retaliation and we’re proud to be here today.” NYPD arrested an Amazon delivery driver and Teamsters Local 804 organizer Antonio Rosario in Maspeth on Thursday for attempting to join the picket line.
New York State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, whose Senate district covers Staten Island, also stood with the union. Noting that Amazon is a $2 trillion dollar corporation, she stated, “If they think that they won’t come to the table and allow you to get a contract, they have another thing coming because you have a bunch of people behind you at every level of government who are gonna stand up and make sure that they come to the table with you.”
Several other unions were also present in solidarity throughout the day, including New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents yellow and green cab drivers as well as Uber, Lyft, and corporate black car drivers.
Richard Chow, an organizer with the Alliance, noted the solidarity between the ALU and the Alliance: “Amazon Labor Union supported us in our fight, therefore we won the debt campaign… That’s why we came here today.” The Alliance struggled for years to end cabbies’ medallion debt, which was so massive that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the debt system “manufactured financial indentured servitude” at a congressional hearing in 2021. Several drivers committed suicide after the debt left them with nothing.
Chow noted that Amazon pays less for warehouse work than its unionized competitors while its workers are injured at more the double the rate of other warehouse workers. Meanwhile, Amazon is the second largest private employer in the United States with over 1 million employees. “Amazon workers are treated [as] disposable” while “Jeff Bezos’ net worth is more than $200 billion, making him the second richest person.”
Workers at Amazon’s Kentucky airhub KCVG were present at the rally too. Inspired by the Amazon Labor Union’s efforts to bring Amazon to the bargaining table, they shared that their local union’s demands of a starting wage of $30 per hour have become a basis for Amazon union organizing efforts across the country, along with 180 hours of paid time off, fully paid childcare, a pension, and healthcare benefits.
The strike represented a powerful moment in the ongoing fight for workers’ rights at Amazon and beyond. Reporters from picket lines around the country estimated that the roughly 600 workers who joined the picket nationwide were enough to force Amazon to counter-mobilize its managers to keep operations from being majorly impacted.
The Teamsters represent nearly 10,000 out of over one million warehouse and distribution center workers under Amazon’s control. It remains to be seen how Amazon will respond to these demands, but one thing is clear: the voices of workers will be heard.
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