Nearly 10,000 employees joined this movement to demand wage increases and better working conditions from Amazon, according to the e-commerce giant’s union.
A strike began on Thursday at several sites in the United States of the American distribution giant Amazon, a few days before the end-of-year holidays, to demand in particular salary increases. The social movement started at 11:00 GMT in the United States on Thursday due to the refusal of Amazon management to negotiate with the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which affiliated with the powerful Teamsters organization (IBT) in June. Seven American sites are affected, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, in New York, Atlanta (Georgia), California and Illinois.
In New York, around 100 people gathered in front of Amazon’s main warehouse in the Queens district, police said, adding that one person had been arrested, without giving a reason. The site continued to operate but the gathering “clearly slowed down” entry and exit of vehicles, said Tony Rosciglione, treasurer of the local Teamsters branch. He estimated the number of people who took part in the strike picket at 300.
The movement concerns Amazon employees who are members of the ALU but also truck drivers subcontracting the company. The IBT estimates that 10,000 employees of the distribution giant have joined the union. For several months, the ALU and the Teamsters have been demanding that Amazon open negotiations to reach a new company agreement, which the company has so far refused. The union decided to go on strike after setting, in vain, an ultimatum of December 15.
When asked, the Teamsters did not specify how long the movement could last. “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed”declared the president of the IBT, Sean O’Brien, quoted in the press release. “We have given Amazon a clear deadline to come to the negotiating table and do the right thing for our members. They ignored him.”added the leader.
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“Misleading public opinion”
Since its creation, the group had always opposed the creation of a union within it, before employees of a sorting center in the New York district of Staten Island voted in favor of the creation of a branch of the union. ‘ALU, in the spring of 2022. Amazon tried to have this ballot invalidated, but the government agency responsible for labor relations, the NLRB, rejected it last August. No other ALU branch has been officially created on an Amazon site in the United States, but the union says it has members in several regions.
“For more than a year, the Teamsters have sought to mislead public opinion by claiming to represent thousands of Amazon employees and drivers, when that is not the case”indicated a spokesperson for the group to several American media. She considered that the communication around the strike movement was “another attempt to sell a false story”. Contacted, Amazon did not immediately respond.
In Germany, at the call of the ver.di union, some 450 of the 1,500 employees of an Amazon logistics center in Werne (west) also declared themselves on strike on Thursday to obtain “fair working conditions”. The union plans work stoppages at eight other sites by the end of the year and hopes to mobilize around 16,000 people. ver.di demands that Amazon employees be paid according to the collective agreement for the retail and mail order sector, which the group refuses. The movement has lasted for eleven years and has nevertheless made it possible to obtain wage increases and improvements in working conditions according to the German union.
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