An Amazon delivery truck passes by people marching with signs as members of the Teamsters union go on strike at an Amazon facility in Alpharetta, Georgia, on December 19, 2024.
Elijah Nouvelage | Elijah Nouvelage Reuters
Amazon Workers at seven plants in New York, Georgia, California and Illinois went on strike Thursday to lobby for better benefits, higher wages and safer working conditions.
The strike, organized by Teamsters union members, is aimed at forcing Amazon to the negotiating table and avoiding disruption during the peak of the holiday shopping season. The union has previously given Amazon until sunday Agree on a negotiation date for the contract.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to demand Amazon sat down to do the right thing for our members and they ignored it.”
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC that the Truckers Association has been conducting a year-long campaign to “intentionally mislead the public.” Amazon said that while the union said it represented thousands of employees and drivers, the protesters at the scene were “almost all outsiders.”
“The fact that they were unable to get adequate support from our employees and partners and brought in outsiders to harass and intimidate our team is inappropriate and dangerous,” the company said, adding that it “will Continue to focus on getting customers” their holiday orders. “
Representatives of the Teamsters union did not immediately respond to CNBC’s inquiry about whether outsiders were involved in the strike.
The Teamsters website says nearly 10,000 Amazon employees have joined the organization. This represented less than 1% of the company’s 1.53 million employees as of December 31, 2023.
Amazon has long opposed unionizing among its employees, but efforts to unionize began to materialize in 2022 when warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York vote to join A union. Amazon had actively fought union efforts, so this was a bitter defeat for the company.
In June, Amazon union workers who spearheaded the Staten Island movement Vote for affiliates Teamed up with the Teamsters after struggling to negotiate a contract with Amazon.
—CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
watch: How two friends formed Amazon’s first U.S. union and what’s next
