NEW YORK CITY — On December 19 1000’s of Amazon employees organizing with the Teamsters launched a cascade of unfair apply strikes from coast to coast on the logistics large.
At the picket line in Queens, New York, police arrested and launched Anthony Rosario, a Teamsters organizer, and Jogernsyn Cardenas, one of many placing employees, after which threatened mass arrests earlier than breaking the road in two to permit vans by way of.
Six different amenities in California, Illinois and Georgia are additionally on strike and the JFK8 achievement heart in Staten Island, N.Y. will quickly comply with swimsuit.
The Teamsters are placing Amazon as a result of the corporate refuses to acknowledge the unions at its supply stations and achievement heart and discount with its employees. The union has argued that underneath the brand new joint-employer commonplace the supply drivers are additionally legally staff of Amazon, which Amazon disputes.
In response, the Teamsters put Amazon bosses on the clock to offer bargaining dates by December 15 or face nationwide strikes earlier than the vacation purchasing bonanza.
The strike started at 6 a.m at supply station DBK4 in Maspeth, New York, the place employees transport orders to prospects’ doorsteps within the NYC metro space. More than a hundred strikers turned out. Hours into the strike, the New York Police Department responded to the deliberate disruption to the corporate’s operations with two arrests.
The first was of Amazon driver Jogernsyn Cardenas, who says he joined the union push on the urging of his nephew however didn’t understand the strike had begun when he confirmed as much as work right this moment.
He stopped his van as placing co-workers shouted for him to affix them. “We had been surrounding the van, and we advised him to get out. Come be a part of us!” says Latrice Johnson, a driver at one in every of Amazon’s eight subcontractors at DBK4 (whom I interviewed concerning the union marketing campaign in September). “He was listening, and he wished to know extra. And the police stopped that, they usually saved telling him to maintain it shifting. He was saying, ‘How am I gonna go anyplace? The persons are right here. I can’t hit folks.’”
NYPD officers swarmed Cardenas, blocking him within the cab of his van and finally arresting him after he tried to go away his car, over shouts of “Let him go!” from fellow employees and allies.
Cardenas was arrested after tried to go away his van. Luis Feliz Leon
“To see that man wrongfully snatched out of the van whereas he’s at work on the clock” reminded Johnson of her brothers’ encounters with police. “And I stood up for him like I would do for any one in every of these folks out right here, like all of us household.”
Johnson joined others demanding Cardenas’s launch and trailed the police as they marched Cardenas down the road to a patrol automobile. An officer grabbed her by the waist and flung her again, then shoved her.
The second arrest was of Anthony Rosario, Teamsters organizer and former UPS driver who was a chief within the 1997 UPS strike.
Rosario says he and the employees had been complying with cops’ demand to let one truck by way of each two to 3 minutes. When police started attempting to let extra vehicles by way of, he says, he “continued to stroll, utilizing my proper … and you already know, they only determined to arrest me. So on the finish of the day, they’re violating not solely our First Amendment rights, however they’re violating all the employees rights on this picket line.”
Workers stood robust on picket strains, disrupting deliveries. Police threatened mass arrests with zip ties in hand, although they didn’t comply with by way of as employees united to defend every different.
Eventually, police barricaded the picket line and cleared a path for vehicles to go away the supply station unimpeded.
Amazon directed remark requests to the NYPD, saying it was the police who “selected to detain the people.” The NYPD didn’t reply by publication time. In a earlier assertion, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel advised In These Times the strike is prohibited and the Teamsters don’t characterize 1000’s of Amazon employees.
Rosario and Cardenas had been launched with assist from the Teamsters authorized crew.
“We are all collectively on this. That’s the one means we’re gonna get what we wish,” mentioned Cardenas afterward, alternating between talking in Spanish and English. “We gotta maintain combating. If we don’t struggle, we’re not gonna get more cash and extra advantages. Because, imagine it or not, we ship extra packages than UPS and FedEx.”
Teamsters Local 804 President Vincent Perrone views the struggle at Amazon as a do-or-die second to uphold business requirements throughout the logistics business. “When you take a look at these Amazon drivers and warehouse employees, they need to pay for their very own medical,” says Perrone. “They don’t have any pensions. They’re making half the hourly wage of UPS staff. UPS and FedEx used to dominate the business. Now this shithole firm comes up that’s value a trillion {dollars}, they usually’re sending folks off into area. But they need to pay folks like shit. We have to vary that, and we’re going to change it proper now.”
Asked how he felt upon his launch, Cardenas mentioned, “I really feel like a hero as a result of I had the braveness to cease my van.”
