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Amazon warehouse workers launched a nationwide strike early Thursday (December 19) morning amid the busy holiday season, the New York Post reports.
The Teamsters union called for its largest strike against the popular e-commerce company involving seven warehouses including one in New York City, one in Atlanta, three in Southern California, one in San Francisco and one in Skokie, Illinois, just days before Christmas. The union also plans to put up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers throughout the U.S., claiming it gave the company until December 15 to begin negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement before launching its strike.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a statement obtained by the New York Post. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”
Amazon claims the Teamsters illegally coerced workers to join the union, which says it represents 10,000 people nationwide among the 1.5 million current warehouse and corporate employees.
“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,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in response to the strike via the New York Post. “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.”
Amazon claims it increased starting minimum wage for drivers and warehouse workers by 20% with the average base wage raised to $22 per hour in September.