Delivery workers continued to picket Amazon facilities in New York City, Illinois, California and Atlanta on Thursday after the company refused to engage in labor contract negotiations.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is organizing workers, although Amazon does not recognize those efforts and claims the workers are not Amazon employees. (A position at the federal labor watchdog The National Labor Review Board, or NLRB, disagrees.)
The striking workers, who are primarily delivery drivers, are agitating for a contract that offers better pay and working conditions. The Teamsters have given Amazon until Dec. 15 to begin contract negotiations. The strike is scheduled for the week before Christmas as part of a push to bring the company to the bargaining table. It’s one of the biggest strikes in Amazon’s history, and it’s unclear how long it will last. And this is already having legal consequences; An Amazon delivery driver and a Teamster organizer Arrests were made Thursday at the Queens facility Allegation of obstructing traffic.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said. said in a statement on Thursday. “We have given Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”
The delivery workers’ strike is part of a larger effort to unionize workers, including delivery drivers and warehouse workers who perform Amazon’s shipping and fulfillment services. The struggle for unionization has been going on for years. In 2022, labor organizers had their first major victory, when an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island voted to unionize and formed the Amazon Workers Union. Since then, the Amazon labor union has joined the Teamsters, which bills itself as the largest labor union in North America and represents workers in a variety of industries. including transportation and healthcare. The Teamsters say the union represents 10,000 Amazon workers.
This week’s strike offers little indication of the kind of victory Staten Island workers could have won in 2022; Amazon argued that the strike would not harm its operations and dismissed its legality. And while workers trying to organize at Amazon have scored some victories before the NLRB, the agency is expected to undergo major, pro-business changes under the incoming Donald Trump administration. That puts the success of striking workers and how the federal government will treat labor in the coming years in doubt.
The workers are on strike to make a statement
It’s unclear how many workers are on strike, but they represent a fraction of Amazon’s delivery workforce of approximately 800,000 people.
The poor working conditions of Amazon warehouse workers, including injuries and inadequate access to medical care, have been well documented. A new Senate report. That inspired the first unionization efforts in Staten Island warehouses.
Drivers and delivery workers say they too are struggling.
“The pay should be better. Health insurance needs to be better,” Thomas Hickman, a delivery worker based in Georgia, said. told CNN. “We need a better working environment. If we have more than 400 packages, we need a helper to ride with us.”
This strike is not focused on working conditions or pay and benefits, although that is part of it; It was called an unfair labor practice strike, because Amazon refused to give workers the bargaining agreement the Teamsters had given Amazon management. Workers are striking to force companies to negotiate a labor contract that sets acceptable working conditions, pay, benefits and more. Workers expect their rights and benefits to be reserved so that they cannot be arbitrarily removed by the company.
The Teamsters maintain that the company is violating labor laws by refusing to negotiate a contract.
“In some ways, it’s not that unique,” Eric Blank, professor of labor relations at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations, told Vox. “In many cases, employers will ignore labor laws and refuse to bargain. Sometimes, striking is the way to bring them to the table.”
Amazon, however, has said that the striking workers are not even Amazon employees.
“There’s a lot of nuance here, but I want to be clear, the Teamsters do not represent any Amazon employees, despite their claims to the contrary,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. told CNN. “This whole narrative is a PR play and the behavior of the Teamsters last year, and this week is illegal.” Vox reached out to Nantel to clarify what actions Amazon believes are illegal but did not receive a response by publication time.
According to Amazon, these drivers and delivery workers work for third-party contractors — which they call delivery service partners (DSPs). But Amazon does not name the DSPs and Amazon advertises for those delivery jobs on websites. Delivery workers drive Amazon-branded vans and wear Amazon uniforms; They deliver Amazon packages, and Amazon “entirely dictates how third-party companies operate,” Rebecca Givan, a professor of labor relations at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations, told Vox. “Amazon sets the terms.”
The Teamsters filed an unfair labor practice complaint in 2023 against Amazon and its California DSP, Battle Tested Strategies, saying Amazon and the DSP were joint employers of dozens of delivery workers that the Teamsters organized there. The NLRB gave that ruling in August this year Amazon and Battle Tested Tactics were joint recruiters, And in September, an NLRB regional director A Formal complaint against Amazon.
Amazon isn’t likely to back down anytime soon — and the stakes are high
Seth Harris, a senior fellow at the Barnes Center for Social Change and a former top labor policy adviser to the Biden administration, told Vox that Amazon “has made it clear that they have no intention of bargaining with their workers.”
First, Amazon’s business model relies on low-cost labor and is easily replaced during times of high turnover, according to labor experts who spoke with Vox. Establishing a contract that guarantees workers certain levels of pay, benefits, and workplace security contradicts that model.
Amazon didn’t recognize the original Amazon Workers UnionAlthough It is recognized by the NLRB. And they spent “tens of millions of dollars” over the years on illegal union-busting activities, Blank said, including Threatening employees with wages and benefits if they unionize; Removing information about union efforts from a digital message board, and firing workers for unionizing.
There are federal laws governing how organizations are meant to communicate with unions and collective action efforts. But there are no real penalties for failing to negotiate with workers, Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told Vox.
The NLRB is tasked with resolving labor disputes, however the amazon (as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX) have filed lawsuits claiming the NLRB and current dispute resolution system are unconstitutional. If the court rules in favor of Amazon and SpaceX, it could significantly change how the federal government handles labor disputes.
Therefore, Amazon can “delay, delay, delay” negotiating a contract with striking workers, Wheaton said, to win their case, or they’ll soon have a Trump administration that’s too hostile to labor, and an NLRB that’s too pro-corporation. friendly President-elect Donald Trump is expected to fill at least two seats on the NRLB and elect pro-business candidates; His pick for labor secretary, however, is more widely viewed Labor supporters than expected.
Regardless of the position the incoming administration takes, the push for unionization at Amazon, which has only picked up in a relatively short period of time, is likely to continue.
“This strike is a way for the company — and the public — to come clean about that.” [the push to unionize and negotiate a contract] Not going away,” Blank said.
