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Amazon Hit by Nationwide Strike Launched by the Teamsters Union
December 19, 2024
At 6 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 19, Amazon workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters began a strike against the retail giant, with President Sean O’Brien asserting that the workers are seeking better pay, longer breaks, and safer work conditions.
According to NPR, the Teamsters union claims employees are joining the picket line in New York City, Atlanta, California, and Illinois. Drivers and warehouse employees in other cities are also striking.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters President O’Brien said in a press release. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”
He continued: “These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them.”
In 2022, Staten Island, New York, employees were the first to form a union. However, the company has consistently challenged the ruling in court, claiming that union leaders swayed employee votes — a claim that the National Labor Relations Board rejected nearly two years ago. In June 2024, they merged with Teamsters, a union that covers 1.3 million individuals in the United States and Canada, after starting as a tiny, autonomous organization named the Amazon Labor Union.
Unsurprisingly, the shipping giant doesn’t recognize the strike. “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 a statement, according to NBC News.
In the press release, Teamsters stated that nearly 10,000 Amazon workers have “mobilized a movement” and joined the union, though this is less than 1% of the retail corporation’s 1.5 million total employees.
Amazon Under Fire From the Senate
The headache from the Teamster union isn’t the only one the Jeff Bezos-founded company has to face. Earlier this week, a senate investigation revealed disturbing trends at the company.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is accusing Amazon of falsifying warehouse injury data. The committee study stated that the retailer’s warehouses recorded 30% more injuries in 2023 than the industry average, despite the retailer’s denials of the charges. Amazon employees are “twice as likely” to sustain an injury at work as other warehouse workers.
According to the committee, warehouse employees were forced to do dangerous and repetitive actions to meet targets, which led to “musculoskeletal disorders.” The safety precautions were said to be hard or nearly impossible to follow.
“The shockingly dangerous working conditions at Amazon’s warehouses revealed in this 160-page report are beyond unacceptable,” said committee chair Senator Bernie Sanders, per The New York Times. “Amazon’s executives repeatedly chose to put profits ahead of the health and safety of its workers by ignoring recommendations that would substantially reduce injuries.”
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