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An Amazon delivery truck passes people holding signs and marching during a strike by members of the Teamsters union at an Amazon facility in Alpharetta, Georgia, on December 19, 2024.
Elijah Novel | Reuters
Amazon workers at seven facilities 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 members of the Teamsters union, is aimed at pressuring Amazon to come to the bargaining table and avoid disruptions during the peak holiday shopping season. The union had previously given Amazon until Sunday to agree on negotiation dates for a contract.
“If your package is delayed over 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 come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”
In a statement to CNBC, an Amazon spokesperson said the Teamsters have been on a year-long campaign to “intentionally mislead the public.” While the union says it represents thousands of employees and drivers, the protesters at the sites are “almost entirely foreigners,” Amazon said.
“The truth is that they were not able to get enough support from our employees and partners and brought in foreigners to harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous,” the company said, adding that it “continues to focus on getting customers”. their vacation orders.”
A representative for the Teamsters did not immediately respond to CNBC’s inquiry about whether outsiders are participating in the strike.
The Teamsters website says nearly 10,000 Amazon workers have joined the organization. That represents less than 1% of the company’s workforce of 1.53 million, by December 31, 2023. The union said that Thursday’s campaign is the largest strike against Amazon in American history.
Amazon has long opposed unions among its workforce, but efforts to organize began to materialize in 2022, when warehouse workers in New York’s Staten Island. voted to join a trade union. Amazon had aggressively fought unionization efforts, so this was a stinging defeat for the company.
In June, employees in the Amazon Labor Union, which led the Staten Island movement, voted to affiliate with the Teamsters after struggling to negotiate a contract with Amazon.
— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
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