Team members say Amazon workers will strike at several facilities while the union seeks a labor contract

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning, an attempt by the union to pressure the e-commerce company for a working agreement during an important shopping period.

The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized strikes for the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it does not expect an impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in US history.

The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small fraction of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.

In a warehouse located in New York City’s Staten Island borough, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have joined them in demonstrating majority support, but without holding government-administered elections.

The strikes taking place Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco, California, and six delivery stations in Southern California, New York City; Atlanta, Georgia and Skokie, Illinois, according to the union release. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join,” the union said.

“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the line by failing to show them the respect they deserve,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.

The Seattle-based online retailer has sought to repeat the election that led to the union victory at the Staten Island warehouse that the Teamsters now represent. In that process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitution of the National Labor Relations Board.

Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers the Teamsters have organized for more than a year are not its employees. Under its business model, drivers work for third-party companies, called Delivery Service Partners, which deliver millions of packages to customers every day.

“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public — claiming they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers.’ They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative ,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement.

The Teamsters have argued that Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer. Some US labor inspectorates sided with the trade union in filings filed with the NLRB. In September, Amazon increased pay for drivers amid growing pressure.