The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said workers at seven Amazon sites would launch a strike on Thursday, according to AP News.
The union is seeking to pressure Amazon to negotiate a labour agreement during a crucial shopping period. The Teamsters claimed the workers joined the strike after the company had ignored a 15 December deadline set by the union to negotiate a contract.
They represent about 10,000 workers at Amazon’s 10 facilities, a small fraction of the 1.5 million people the company employs in its warehouses and corporate offices. Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien stated:
Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned.
Thursday’s strikes are taking place at one Amazon warehouse in San Francisco, California, and six delivery sites in southern California and New York, Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Skokie, Illinois. Amazon workers at the other sites were “prepared to join,” the union added.
Meanwhile, Amazon argues that drivers, whom the Teamsters have been organising for more than a year, are not its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for a third-party company called Delivery Service Partners, which delivers millions of packages to customers every day. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said:
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.
However, the Teamsters argued that Amazon controlled everything the drivers do, so the company should be classified as an employer. Some US labour regulators sided with the union in applications to the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB).
