Amazon delivery drivers at 7 facilities across the country go on strike

Hundreds of drivers at Amazon facilities across seven locations across the country launched a strike Thursday morning, potentially disrupting holiday deliveries, in an effort to get the online retail giant to acknowledge its affiliation with the Teamsters union and to negotiate an employment contract.

The walkout was scheduled to begin at 5 a.m., with workers from other Amazon sites “ready to join,” the Teamsters said in a news release Wednesday evening.

“If your package is delayed over the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in the press release. “We’ve given Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored him.

Delivery drivers in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, who began organizing in June to join the Teamsters union, have given Amazon until Dec. 15 to negotiate a deal, aimed at securing higher wages, benefits and improved workplace safety. Workers voted for authorize the strike Monday.

The Amazon labor movement began in March 2022, when workers at a large Staten Island warehouse became the first in the United States to vote in favor of unionizing.

Amazon has refused to recognize the Teamsters’ new union affiliation at 10 facilities across the country. In an emailed statement Wednesday, an Amazon spokesperson reiterated the company’s position that the union does not legitimately represent delivery drivers, calling it a false narrative.

The company does not expect Thursday’s walkout to disrupt deliveries, Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said.

Union workers planned to form picket lines at Amazon facilities in New York, Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Skokie. The Teamsters union also plans to establish picket lines at hundreds of Amazon fulfillment centers across the country, where unaffiliated warehouse workers and drivers “have the legal right” to honor the strike and suspend their work, he said in the statement.

The majority of workers at the Skokie delivery station signed union authorization cards with Teamsters Local 705 over the summer. They joined thousands of factory workers in California, New York and Georgia who have unionized with the Teamsters and are seeking an initial labor contract with Amazon.

The Teamsters claim Amazon illegally refused to recognize their union, while Amazon says contract workers, who lobby for third-party companies to deliver packages, are not eligible for union representation in collective bargaining .

Workers at the Skokie plant hope Thursday’s walkout will send their message and bring Amazon to the negotiating table.

“Amazon is one of the largest and richest companies in the world,” Gabriel Irizarry, a driver at the Skokie delivery station, said in the press release. “They talk about taking care of their workers, but ultimately Amazon doesn’t respect us or our right to negotiate better working conditions and wages. We can’t even afford to pay our bills.