Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
An Amazon delivery truck passes by people holding signs and marching during a strike by members of the Teamsters union at an Amazon facility in Alpharetta, Georgia, on December 19, 2024.
Elías Nouvelage | Reuters
Amazon Workers at seven facilities in New York, Georgia, California and Illinois went on strike Thursday to push for better benefits, higher wages and safer working conditions.
The strike, organized by members of the Teamsters union, aims to pressure Amazon to come to the negotiating table and avoid disruptions during the peak of the holiday shopping season. The union had previously given Amazon until sunday agree negotiation dates for a contract.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do what’s right for our members. They ignored it.”
In a statement to CNBC, an Amazon spokesperson said the Teamsters have been on a year-long campaign to “intentionally mislead the public.” While the union says it represents thousands of employees and drivers, protesters at the sites are “almost entirely outsiders,” Amazon said.
“The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and brought in outsiders to harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous,” the company said, adding that it “continues to focus on landing customers.” . your vacation requests.”
A Teamsters representative did not immediately respond to CNBC’s question about whether outsiders are participating in the strike.
The Teamsters website says nearly 10,000 Amazon workers have joined the organization. That represents less than 1% of the company’s workforce of 1.53 million, as of Dec. 31, 2023. The union said Thursday’s campaign is the largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history.
Amazon has long opposed unions among its workforce, but efforts to organize began to materialize in 2022, when warehouse workers on New York’s Staten Island voted to join a union. Amazon had aggressively fought unionization efforts, so it was a tough defeat for the company.
In June, employees of the Amazon Workers Union, which led the Staten Island movement, voted to join with the Teamsters after struggling to negotiate a contract with Amazon.
— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
LOOK: How two friends formed the first Amazon union in the US and what’s next
