Teamsters Launch Amazon Workers Strike in Effort to Disrupt Christmas

After years of hit-and-miss labor activism at Amazon.com Inc., the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has adopted a more direct tactic: calling for a nationwide strike six days before Christmas.

The union asked workers to walk off the job Thursday morning at seven Amazon facilities where the Teamsters have sought to represent the company’s contract delivery drivers or warehouse workers. They’ve also pledged to dispatch members who don’t work at Amazon to set up picket lines at hundreds of warehouses around the country, their biggest show of force to date in a campaign to organize America’s second-largest private employer. 

The delivery depots targeted by the strike are in New York, Atlanta, the Chicago area and California, the Teamsters said. Media reports early Thursday showed Teamster picketers outside other warehouses, including in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, an effort to get trucks picking up packages bound for holiday shoppers to turn around.

An Amazon facility in Queens appeared to be one of the hot spots, with picketers clashing with police and blocking vans while media captured the tension, according to social media posts. The picketing at other sites was more subdued, with just a handful of people holding signs. Managers at some Amazon facilities are sending notices asking workers if they feel safe and encouraging them to report any difficulty entering or exiting the buildings, according to social media posts.

Little impact on operations

Disrupting Amazon’s operations is a tall order. The online retailer dispatches packages from almost 230 massive warehouses and more than 600 smaller delivery depots scattered around the US, according to MWPVL International, a logistics consultancy. Previous walkouts have had little impact on the company’s operations, and a spokesperson said the company isn’t expecting disruptions this week.

But no prior effort has had this scale, or the public relations muscle of the Teamsters, which represent some 1.3 million workers. Many of those members are drivers, an industry Amazon has upended with its dominance of e-commerce and its bespoke network of contract-delivery firms. The Teamsters have timed their action to generate maximum attention just as shoppers make their final Christmas purchases.

Amazon has been a target of organizing efforts since the pandemic shone a spotlight on the critical role played by the people who pack and ship items in e-commerce warehouses. Employees launched union drives, including at facilities in New York City and Bessemer, Alabama, seeking to unionize through a workplace ballot overseen by a federal labor board.