Sawt Falasteen - Thousands of US Amazon staff strike days before Christmas

The job action targets seven Amazon facilities spaced around the United States. Workers on the pickets include Amazon employees who are affiliated with the Teamsters labor union and truckers who transport packages in and out of the facilities.

The move comes amid a Teamsters national organizing campaign at Amazon, which has long fought unionization. The country's second-largest labor union had given Amazon until December 15 to agree to bargaining dates, pointing to progress in unionization campaigns around the United States.

In Germany, an affiliate of the union ver.di also launched a stoppage at an Amazon facility in the western part of the country, saying it was operating in solidarity with the US union. The German union plans stoppages at eight other facilities involving 16,000 people through the end of 2024.

The Amazon DBK4 warehouse in New York continued operations Thursday, but the pickets "definitely slowed down" deliveries in and out of the facility, said Tony Rosciglione, treasurer of the Teamsters Local 804 in New York.

Rosciglione said there were about 300 people including union supporters on the picket line in Queens where the union had signed up additional Amazon workers interested in joining the Teamsters, he told AFP in a phone interview.

Besides New York, workers will picket at facilities in Atlanta, southern California, San Francisco and Illinois, with other Amazon Teamsters "prepared to join them," the union said in a statement.

"If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed," Teamsters boss Sean O'Brien said in the statement.

"We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it."

The Teamsters union says it represents some 10,000 workers, or less than one percent, at Amazon facilities around the country.

- Organizing drive -

The DBK4 facility is among the sites in recent months where workers have demanded union recognition after signing up supporters. Workers have made similar demands in Atlanta and at an air facility in California.

Amazon has long fought unionization drives, which have depicted unions as a way to improve pay, ensure more manageable employment schedules and promote better workplace safety.

Workers at a New York facility in Staten Island became the first Amazon employees to vote in favor of a union in April 2022.

Originally an independent union, the Amazon workers voted in June to affiliate with the Teamsters.

However, Amazon has refused to bargain on a contract at Staten Island, arguing that the vote was unfairly administered by the National Labor Relations Board.

The company has contested the authority of the NLRB in a succession of appeals that could go to the Supreme Court.

The Teamsters campaign comes as the complexion of the NLRB looks poised to change with appointees of Joe Biden expected to be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump, who has historically been far less supportive of organized labor.

Art Wheaton, director of Labor Studies at Cornell's School of Industrial Relations, said the timing of the action near Christmas was designed to maximize the Teamsters' leverage.

"During Christmas time, Amazon is probably at its peak," Wheaton said. "There's not much more leverage than downtown New York City the week before Christmas."

P.AbuBaker--SF-PST