Nearly 10,000 Amazon workers in multiple states went on strike Thursday morning, less than a week before Christmas.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced in a news release it launched its strike at seven Amazon facilities located in New York, Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Skokie, Illinois.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien.
“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. This strike is on them,” he added.
Fox Business reported the strike came after Amazon “ignored the union’s Dec. 15 deadline to negotiate new contracts for higher wages, better benefits and safer work conditions.”
Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto asked O’Brien Thursday why the union workers chose to strike the week before Christmas.
O’Brien said that Amazon had ignored its demands to meet and negotiate a contract for over two and a half years.
“Collective bargaining is all about leverage. This is our leverage. This is our pinch point,” he said.
“Amazon doesn’t respect their workers who make them the success they are, and the Teamsters Union is going to hold them accountable.”
Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien joins Neil Cavuto to discuss the historic Amazon Teamsters strike sweeping the nation and blasts the… pic.twitter.com/7NiooFiOGB
— Teamsters (@Teamsters) December 19, 2024
Cavuto countered that Amazon employees are among the highest-paid retail workers in the country.
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In September, the company announced it was increasing its total compensation package for fulfillment and transportation workers to more than $29 per hour, an increase of over $3,000 a year for the average full-time employee. That figure included an average base salary of $22 per hour, plus the cost of health care and other benefits, the company said in a news release.
O’Brien told Cavuto, “These people are not being paid a liveable wage, they’re getting minimal benefits, if any, and it’s a disgrace, and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen. And this company is worth $2 trillion.”
“Amazon’s got a duty to bargain, and they should sit down and bargain in good faith,” he argued.
Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the country, behind Walmart, with over 1.6 million employees, the Gwinett Daily Post reported in July 2022.
“NYPD’s working for Amazon” a union leader shouts as police break up the picket line that was preventing some delivery trucks from leaving.
Cops later put up barricades to prevent striking workers and their allies from blocking trucks. @Teamsters pic.twitter.com/SWg4qSj5Vg
— Duncan Freeman (@deefreemank) December 19, 2024
CBS News reported that Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel responded to the strike in a statement saying, “For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public — claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers.’ They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative.”
She added, “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.”
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