“If your package deal is delayed throughout the holidays, you’ll be able to blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a transparent deadline to come back to the desk and do proper by our members. They ignored it,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien mentioned in a information launch.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
The strike authorization comes as the vacation season of package-ordering reaches a crescendo within the week earlier than Christmas. However, Eileen Hards, an Amazon spokeswoman, mentioned the $575 billion-a-year firm shouldn’t be nervous concerning the timing of the menace.
“Historically, these protests haven’t impacted our operation or our means to ship for our prospects,” she mentioned.
O’Brien, president of the 121-year-old Teamsters union that represents about 1.3 million staff, issued a press release saying: “If Amazon Teamsters are compelled onto the picket line, it’s as a result of the corporate has failed its workforce.”
But Hards rejected the concept of negotiations as a “false narrative.”
Hards mentioned the drivers should not Amazon workers; they work for contractors and that the union is deceptive the general public. And that could be a massive a part of the dispute between the 2 sides.
Amazon has traditionally fought union organizing efforts. Hards accused the Teamsters of utilizing threats as an organizing instrument in coping with each Amazon workers and “third-party drivers.”
Kara Deniz, a Teamsters spokeswoman, mentioned the scenario is the reverse — it’s the firm that “threatens, intimidates and coerces its staff.” Almost 10,000 workers in 20 bargaining models have voted to hitch the union, she mentioned.
Moreover, Amazon can not faux these are actually impartial contractors, Deniz mentioned. “No matter how large Amazon’s company PR machine is, they can’t idiot the American public into believing drivers delivering Amazon packages in Amazon-branded vans don’t truly work for Amazon. No one believes this nonsense.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
The Alpharetta group works instantly for both ATOM Logistics or Blue Cardinal Logistics, which each function from that facility.
The Teamsters final week filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board that names Amazon and ATOM Logistics as joint employers.
Messages to ATOM Logistics and to Blue Cardinal Logistics weren’t instantly returned. Some of the drivers additionally work for Blue Calls
Alpharetta is the eighth Amazon-linked facility to authorize a strike, together with areas in New York, Illinois and California, Deniz mentioned. “Amazon is gaslighting the American public with their false narratives. Amazon staff have had sufficient and the Teamsters are prepared to assist them safe justice of their office.”
Amazon is at present preventing Teamsters campaigns by warehouse staff in San Francisco and supply drivers in Queens, New York, and Victorville and City of Industry in California.
The union-Amazon tussle comes a month earlier than a change in presidential administrations may imply a shift in authorities dealing with of such disputes.
President Joe Biden’s appointments have been pro-labor, together with these to the National Labor Relations Board. But President-elect Donald Trump, who takes workplace in January, courted union voters throughout the 2024 marketing campaign and gained assist of many blue-collar voters.
O’Brien, the Teamster president, spoke on the Republican National Convention in July.
