Workers at two of Amazon’s warehouses in New York City are set to go on strike after the company failed to come to the bargaining table by a December 15 deadline. Unionized workers at the JFK8 facility on Staten Island and DBK4 depot in Queens voted “overwhelmingly” to authorize strikes in protest against “Amazon’s illegal refusal to recognize their union and negotiate a contract addressing the company’s low wages and dangerous working conditions,” according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Engadget has contacted the Teamsters and Amazon Labor Union (ALU) for more details about the strikes.
The workers at JFK8 were the first in the US to unionize at an Amazon warehouse. They organized under the ALU, which this June partnered with the Teamsters. The union now known as ALU-IBT Local 1 represents around 5,500 warehouse workers at JFK8.
“Our members are ready to do whatever it takes to get a contract,” Connor Spence, president of ALU-IBT Local 1, said in a statement. “While Amazon continues to disrespect us by refusing to listen to our concerns, our movement is only growing stronger.”
As for DBK4 — which the Teamsters say is Amazon’s biggest delivery station in NYC — workers there voted almost unanimously for strike authorization. Meanwhile, workers at the DIL7 delivery depot in Skokie, Illinois, also voted “overwhelmingly” to approve a strike. The Teamsters represent hundreds of workers at that station as well. “Amazon is one of the biggest companies on Earth, but we are struggling to pay our bills,” Riley Holzworth, a DIL7 worker, said in a statement.
Amazon has lodged legal challenges against the union election win at JFK8, but it has been unsuccessful in its efforts to overturn results thus far. The company has appealed a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that certified the union. As ABC News reports, workers claim that Amazon is using the challenges as a tactic to illegally delay union contract talks.
“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,” Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards told ABC News. “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.”
News of the impending strike comes just after a Senate committee released a report regarding an investigation into safety at Amazon facilities. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions claimed the company ignored internal research indicating that there was a high level of injury rates at its warehouses.
