Amazon Teamsters at Staten Island’s JFK8 warehouse are joining their brethren’s “historic strike” against the retail giant in the days leading up to Christmas.
When the clock strikes midnight Saturday morning, workers at Amazon’s largest union facility will team up with a protest that includes laborers at Amazon operations in Queens, Atlanta, San Francisco, southern California and suburban Chicago.
“It takes real courage to stand up to a corporate bully and Amazon Teamsters are doing just that,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement about the growing protest.
The union accuses the $2 trillion company of refusing to bargain with workers who voted to become Teamsters. Workers accuse Amazon of failing to meet a Sunday deadline by coming to the negotiating table.
Workers at seven Amazon facilities walked off the job Thursday to hold out for better compensation and safer working conditions.
The union claims to represent 10,000 Amazon workers across 10 locations. It’s not clear how many of them are on the picket line or when they’ll return to work.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says it speaks for some Amazon drivers and warehouse workers. Teamsters comprise roughly 1% of Amazon’s total workforce, according to CNN. Amazon reportedly takes issues with some of those workers being categorized as employees.
Amazon said Thursday it didn’t expect the Teamsters’ strike to impact holiday gift deliveries.
“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,” a spokesperson for Amazon said in a statement to the Daily News Friday night. “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.”
Amazon claims the protesters arriving at their sites are mostly “outsiders — not Amazon employees or partners.” The company says the Teamsters union is creating an “inappropriate and dangerous” situation for Amazon employees by saying otherwise.
With News Wire Services
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