Teamsters say Amazon workers will strike at several facilities as the union seeks a labor contract

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning, an attempt by the union to pressure the e-commerce company into a labor contract during a key shopping period.

The Teamsters say the workers who authorized strikes in recent days are joining the strike line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 collective bargaining deadline set by the union. Amazon says it expects no impact on its operations during what the union is calling the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.

The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.

In a warehouse in New York’s Staten Island, thousands of workers voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since joined the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees — including many delivery drivers — unionized with them, demonstrating majority support but not holding government-managed elections.

Thursday’s strikes are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco, California, and six delivery stations in Southern California, New York City; Atlanta, Georgia, and Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “ready to join,” the union said.

“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket lines by not giving them the respect they deserve,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.

The Seattle-based online retailer has sought to repeat the election that led to the union’s victory at the Staten Island warehouse now represented by the Teamsters. As a result, the company filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.

Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers the Teamsters have been organizing for more than a year are not its employees. As part of its business model, drivers work for third-party companies, so-called Delivery Service Partners, who deliver millions of packages to customers every day.

“For more than a year, the Teamsters have intentionally misled the public by claiming they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers.’ They are not doing that, and this is another attempt to spread a false narrative,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said in a statement.

The Teamsters have argued that Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer. Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in their filings with the NLRB. In September, Amazon increased driver pay amid growing pressure.