The Teamsters are threatening to strike Amazon. Here’s what that means
New York
CNN
—
Members of the Teamsters union have voted to authorize a strike at three Amazon facilities, including at the Staten Island, New York, warehouse which became the first location where employees voted to join a union in 2022.
The retail giant said that its operations will not be affected by any of the union's actions, even if it goes on strike. Although the Teamsters claim to represent 7,000 Amazon workers nationwide, that accounts for less than 1% of the company's US workforce. And despite votes to approve a walk-out, no strike deadline has been announced by the union.
"This most recent round of protests has not impacted our operations, it's only inconvenienced our employees and partners," Eileen Hards, a spokesperson for, said in a statement to CNN.
Besides the Staten Island warehouse, the Teamsters said members have approved strikes at facilities in Queens, New York, and Skokie, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Strike authorization votes are often approved, even if the union members never actually go on strike. That happened at UPS, the Teamsters' largest employer, in 2023, where the union and parcel delivery company reached a deal a week before the deadline, despite 97% of membership authorizing a strike.
The clash between the union and the online retailing giant are just the latest effort by the Teamsters to put pressure on the company and its strong anti-union policy amid the key holiday shopping period. It's also a sign that organized labor is trying new strategies to represent workers at Amazon, America's second largest private sector employer.
But Amazon shows no indication it is willing to reach a deal with the Teamsters, or even recognizes that the union speaks for any of its workers, despite the union declaring that employees at numerous Amazon facilities have signed cards asking to join. The company is fighting the results of the 2022 Staten Island election in court, and refuses to negotiate with the union or recognize any other employees who have said they have joined the union.
Unions typically win representation of workers by filing to hold elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. While an upstart union, the Amazon Labor Union won such a vote at Amazon's Staten Island facility in April 2022. Other union votes have failed at other Amazon facilities before and since then. The ALU members voted in June to affiliate with the Teamsters, which is one of the nation's largest and most powerful unions with 1.3 million members.
While voluntary recognition of a union by an employer is allowed under labor law, it is relatively rare. And even when the union won an election certified by the NLRB, as it did in Staten Island, Amazon has continued to fight, and refuses to recognize the union.
Given Amazon's massive profits, the union said the company should recognize it and negotiate. Amazon reported a net income of $39.2 billion in the first nine months of this year, more than double for the same period of 2023.
Workers fulfill orders at an Amazon fulfillment center on Prime Day in Melville, New York, US, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
Johnny Milano/Bloomberg/Getty Images
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"Amazon's so-called ‘leaders' should treat their workers fairly, they just want to put food on the table for their families," Teamsters President Sean O'Brien said in a statement. "Instead, Amazon executives risk ruining the holidays for their customers because of their addiction to putting profits over people."
"Amazon is one of the biggest companies on Earth, but we are struggling to pay our bills," said Riley Holzworth, a driver who makes deliveries from the Skokie facility who just voted in favor of the strike, in a statement from the union.
Amazon has a network of 1,000 US warehouses employing more than 740,000 workers, according to a recent government report. The Teamsters says it represents Amazon workers at warehouses in San Francisco and San Bernardino, California, in addition to the Staten Island workers certified as union members by the NLRB. The union said last week that workers at the San Bernardino air hub joined the union.
Many of the 7,000 Teamsters that the union refers to as "Amazon employees," however, are drivers for independent contractors making deliveries for Amazon and no one else. Those drivers are based at seven different Amazon facilities, including those who authorized strikes in Queens and Skokie.
The drivers in Queens and Skokie may have participated in a strike vote, but there was never a NLRB-supervised representation election held at either facility. And even if there had been such an election held and certified by the NLRB, Amazon argues that they are not actually its employees, but instead employees of its contractors.
But Amazon claims most employees at the facilities the Teamsters union says it represents do not support the union or its efforts, and that the Teamsters' claim of representation was done to "intentionally mislead the public."
Under a recent NLRB opinion those workers can be recognized as having two different employers, and unions can seek recognition and negotiations with either the contractor or the company that they serve.
Business groups continue to challenge the NLRB's dual employer opinion, and it could very well be rejected once President-elect Trump names a new NLRB General Counsel and board members early next year.
