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Amazon (AMZN+2.39%) is facing the largest strike in its history as thousands of workers across the U.S. and Germany walk off the job just days ahead of the holidays.
Workers across seven facilities based in New York City, Atlanta, California, and Skokie, Illinois, walked off the job at 6 a.m. ET on Thursday after repeated attempts to push the tech giant to negotiate with their union were unsuccessful. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters had warned Amazon that a strike could be possible unless it had agreed to bargaining dates by Sunday.
Amazon said it doesn’t expect the strikes to impact its operations despite the walkouts taking place during the busy holiday season. Delivery companies are expected to handle almost 2.2 billion deliveries between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, according to ShipMatrix.
The nation’s largest online retailer operates hundreds of facilities across the U.S., including multiple in areas impacted by the strikes. Between 2020 and 2022 alone, Amazon bought up more than 50 warehouses across the New York City region.
The “largest” strike in Amazon’s history began with workers from seven facilities joining the picket line, according to the Teamsters. Members at other locations are prepared to join the walkouts, and picket lines are being set up at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers across the U.S., the union said.
“What we’re doing is historic,” Leah Pensler, a warehouse worker at DCK6 in San Francisco, said in a statement. “We are fighting against a vicious union-busting campaign, and we are going to win.”
The workers at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island became the first of the company’s warehouses to win a union election in March 2022 and later voted to join the Teamsters, establishing a local that represents some 5,500 warehouse workers at the facility. According to the Teamsters, almost 10,000 Amazon workers have joined the union and are pushing for better wages, benefits, and safer working conditions.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “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.”
Amazon argues that the Teamsters’ walkouts are an attempt to “mislead the public” and push a “false narrative” that they represent thousands of Amazon employees and rivers, as well as that the union’s conduct over the past year — including the strike — is illegal.
“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 spokesperson Kely Nantel said in a statement.
The company also noted its track record of raising wages for warehouse workers over the last several years, including a recent increase in September, as well as investments in its Delivery Service Partner program.
Earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont released a 160-report on Amazon’s labor practices. According to the report, Amazon manipulates workplace injury data to make its warehouses appear safer than they actually are, and it declined to implement recommendations that would help workers avoid injuries but reduce productivity. Amazon has rejected the report and slammed the senator for pushing a “pre-conceived narrative.”
While the Teamsters strike in the U.S., some of their colleagues in Germany are also walking out.
Workers represented by the German United Services Union (ver.di) are launching nationwide strikes designed to be parallel with the U.S. strikes and last through the holidays. Their walkouts begin in the town of Werne in North Rhine-Westphalia, with more on the way, and are designed to hit the company’s “sensitive points.”
“Solidarity knows no national borders,” ver.di federal board member Silke Zimmer said in a statement. “Our actions will show that we are not letting up. We will continue to fight for fair wages, safe working conditions and the recognition of collective agreements.”