The Teamsters “are done asking nicely for Amazon to stop breaking the law,” said the union’s president, Sean O’Brien, who has given the e-commerce giant a Dec. 15 deadline to agree to collective bargaining dates.
Warehouse workers and drivers in San Francisco, Queens, N.Y., Skokie, Ill., Atlanta, Ga., City of Industry, Calif. and Victorville, Calif., have won massive organizing campaigns this year, joining warehouse workers with ALU-IBT Local 1 in Staten Island, N.Y., who voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with the Teamsters this summer, and Teamsters in Palmdale, Calif., who have picketed 50 warehouses nationwide as part of their ongoing strike.
“Thousands of Amazon workers around the country have courageously united to take on one of the world’s most abusive employers,” O’Brien said. “Amazon has a legal obligation to recognize the Teamsters and to start negotiating. Time has run out for this trillion-dollar company. We will protect our members at all costs, and we are prepared to come after Amazon with the full force of the Teamsters Union if and when necessary to get the contract workers have earned.”
The Teamsters Amazon National Negotiating Committee is finalizing its proposal now for the first Teamsters contract at the company.
The proposal is being developed by rank-and-file Teamsters drivers and warehouse workers from all unionized locations.
“Amazon is a bully, but the Teamsters know how to deal with bullies,” said Randy Korgan, Teamsters Amazon Division Director and Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 1932. “This growing movement of Amazon workers can count on the muscle and support of more than 1.3 million hardworking Teamsters across North America. If Amazon fails to agree to bargaining dates with the Teamsters by Dec. 15, we are ready to take the fight directly to the company’s doorstep in every state. Amazon workers are going to win, and the company knows it.”
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Chris Graham
