SKOKIE, Ill. (NewsNation) — More Amazon warehouse workers are set to join the picket lines on Friday, as thousands of workers affiliated with the Teamsters union continue their strike, demanding higher wages and improved safety conditions just days before Christmas.
Delivery drivers went on strike Thursday at seven major hubs across the United States, fighting for better pay and safer working conditions.
The NYPD reported two arrests during a strike in the New York City borough of Queens but didn’t specify why. The timing is strategic, as Amazon relies heavily on drivers during the holidays, and delays in deliveries could
Amazon says the workers represent a small fraction of their workforce and expect holiday shipments to be delivered on time.
Why are workers striking?
The Teamsters said the workers, who voted to authorize strikes in recent days, joined picket lines on Thursday after Amazon ignored a Sunday deadline the union had set for contract negotiations.
Drivers argue they should get paid the same as United Postal Service workers or UPS drivers.
Amazon announced plans to raise wages for its subcontracted drivers to $22 an hour following union pressure. However, Teamsters members driving for UPS earn an average of $49 an hour.
“I’m gonna get paid this Friday, and more than half my check is going to go towards paying bills, paying insurance, and then my benefits that get taken out. More than half my check is about just benefits alone,” an Amazon worker told NewsNation. “We should be getting fair pay, especially with the cost of living in California.”
Where are the strikes happening?
Amazon employs a few hundred employees at each delivery station.
The Teamsters union has primarily focused on organizing delivery drivers, who work for contractors handling Amazon’s deliveries. However, Amazon has rejected calls to negotiate, since it doesn’t consider the drivers to be its employees.
Teamsters also say the union represents some Amazon warehouse workers, totaling about 10,000 Amazon workers nationwide — a small portion of Amazon’s 1.5 million employees.
The union hasn’t disclosed the number of workers participating in the strike or how long it will last. But it included Amazon-employed warehouse workers in San Francisco and subcontracted delivery drivers in cities like Chicago, New York City, Atlanta, and other parts of California.
How has Amazon responded?
Amazon says the strike will not affect customers receiving their packages on time and argues the drivers are not its employees.
The company also says these actions are protests, not strikes since no Amazon employee or third-party driver pays Teamsters union dues.
“They’ve worked hard over the last several weeks to drum up a lot of attention and also to try to convince employees and third-party drivers to join them out there on their protest lines. They weren’t successful so they brought in a bunch of outsiders to harass our employees and to make it difficult for them to get in and out of our facilities,” said Kelly Nantel, Amazon’s director of Global Media Relations.
