By Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune The Tribune Content Agency
Hundreds of drivers at Amazon facilities in seven locations nationwide launched a strike Thursday morning, potentially disrupting holiday deliveries in an effort to get the online retailing giant to recognize their affiliation with the Teamsters union and negotiate a labor contract.
The walkout was set to begin at 5 a.m., with workers at other Amazon locations "prepared to join them," the Teamsters said in a news release Wednesday night.
"If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed," Teamsters President Sean O'Brien said in the news release. "We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it."
Delivery drivers in the Chicago suburb Skokie, Illinois, who began organizing in June to join the Teamsters union, gave Amazon a Dec. 15 deadline to negotiate an agreement, seeking higher wages, benefits and improved workplace safety. The workers voted to authorize the strike Monday.
The Amazon union movement started in March 2022, when workers at a large Staten Island warehouse became the first in the U.S. to vote to unionize.
Amazon has refused to recognize the fledgling Teamsters union affiliation at 10 facilities nationwide. In an emailed statement Wednesday, an Amazon spokesperson reiterated the company's position that the union does not legitimately represent the delivery drivers, calling it a false narrative.
The company does not expect Thursday's walkout to disrupt deliveries, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said.
Union workers planned to form picket lines at Amazon facilities in New York, Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and in Skokie. The Teamsters union is also planning to establish picket lines at hundreds of Amazon fulfillment centers nationwide, where unaffiliated warehouse workers and drivers "have the legal right" to honor the strike and withhold their labor, it said in the release.
A majority of the workers at the Skokie delivery station signed union authorization cards with Teamsters Local 705 over the summer. They joined thousands of workers at facilities in California, New York and Georgia that have unionized with the Teamsters seeking an inaugural labor contract with Amazon.
The Teamsters say that Amazon has illegally refused to recognize their union, while Amazon contends that the subcontracted workers, who drive for third-party companies to deliver the packages, are not eligible for union representation in labor negotiations.
Workers at the Skokie facility are hoping Thursday's walkout will deliver their message and get Amazon to the bargaining table.
"Amazon is one of the biggest, richest corporations in the world," Gabriel Irizarry, a driver at the Skokie delivery station, said in the news release. "They talk a big game about taking care of their workers, but when it comes down to it, Amazon does not respect us and our right to negotiate for better working conditions and wages. We can't even afford to pay our bills."