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Solidarity Unites Amazon Workers & Teamsters to Strike

Solidarity: Amazon workers and Teamsters unite to take on Jeff Bezos for truth, dignity, and a better life. Photo: Amazon Teamsters

Before the sun rose on December 19, thousands of Amazon workers in facilities across the United States launched the largest strike against the multi-billion dollar corporation in U.S. history. The action goes on: Workers, organized with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, continue to hold down the picket line (at the time of original publication), in some cases braving arrests and police repression of their labor activity.

Amazon workers are hitting the company where it hurts the most—walking off the job right before the end-of-the-year holidays, the calendar’s busiest shopping season. Workers launched this Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike claiming that Amazon violated workers’ labor rights and demanding that the corporation recognize their union and agree to negotiate a contract.

Participating picketers come from the Amazon facilities DBK4 in New York City; DGT8 in Atlanta; DFX4, DAX5, and DAX8 in Southern California; DCK6 in San Francisco; and DIL7 in Skokie, Ill. Workers at other facilities may join the action later.

The New York City Police Department directly confronted workers on the picket line at the DBK4 facility in Queens. After hours of workers maintaining a strong picket line, the NYPD broke up the line to allow passage for Amazon delivery vans. Just before, the NYPD arrested an Amazon delivery driver who attempted to stop his delivery van to show support for the striking workers. According to labor journalist Luis Feliz Leon, who recorded the actions of the police, “The cops swarmed [the delivery driver], and he was arrested. Workers surrounded the van, and cops flung them off.”

Arrested workers and Teamsters leaders were later released from NYPD custody and went right back onto the picket line, receiving warm embraces from workers holding down the strike.

Workers demand respect and recognition

Amazon workers say they want union recognition and a contract to address their grievances:  low pay and unsafe working conditions. The multi-billion dollar company rejected workers’ demands and claimed that delivery drivers are not considered Amazon employees. Under the corporation’s model, delivery drivers are employed by a third-party business called the Delivery Service Partners.

“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,” said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel in an official statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.”

The Teamsters claim that Amazon’s allegations are “gaslighting the American public with their false narratives,” according to Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz. “The truth is, over 20 bargaining units, representing nearly 9,000 employees have successfully organized because for many years the company has exploited and abused workers, and these workers are fed up and fighting back,” she said.

“No matter how massive Amazon’s corporate PR machine is, they cannot fool the American public into believing drivers delivering Amazon packages in Amazon-branded vans don’t actually work for Amazon,” said Deniz. “No one believes this nonsense. Amazon needs to stop avoiding their legal obligation to these workers and get to the bargaining table now.”

Amazon workers have organized union drives throughout the country. Each has personal reasons for collaborating with the Teamsters.

“Amazon workers across the country are organizing with the Teamsters because we have had enough. The disrespect we face every day from management while working long hours and doing back-breaking work is a disgrace,” said Daniel Salinas, an air hub worker at KSBD. “I’ve worked at Amazon for three years, and it’s past time we made some changes at this company. That starts with a union and a voice on the job for workers like me.”

Richard Schmidt, a six-year delivery driver with Amazon addressed the company’s claims directly from the picket line at the DAX5 facility in the City of Industry, California. “Why are you saying we do not work for Amazon? Why are you saying, third-party this, third-party that, when we clearly are the face of this company?” Schmidt gestured to the vest he had on, emblazoned with the Amazon logo. “The only thing that doesn’t say Amazon on it is my paycheck.”

In September 2024, the National Labor Relations Board’s Los Angeles region named Amazon as a joint employer of delivery drivers in Palmdale, Calif., a claim Amazon denied.

In 2023, workers at UPS, organized with the Teamsters, won a major victory over the company after threatening a massive strike of 350,000 workers across the United States. In a historic contract, UPS workers ended a two-tier system from the previous pact, added 30,000 new full-time positions, and instituted a starting wage of $21 per hour, among other gains. The Teamsters have now set their sights on organizing Amazon employees, logistics industry workers who perform similar work as UPS workers but earn vastly less, with fewer benefits and protections.

Meanwhile, at the Trump Mar-a-Lago resort, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos became the latest billionaire to be wined and dined by the U.S. president-elect– on the same day his workers launched their strike.

This article was published originally at PeoplesDispatch.org and is republished under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

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