Amazon drivers in Ga., elsewhere go on strike amid holiday rush

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Just days away from Christmas, Amazon – a major employer in the CSRA - is dealing with a strike by union at a metro Atlanta facility.

Workers at seven Amazon facilities went on strike Thursday, an effort by the Teamsters to pressure the e-commerce company for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.

The unionized of the DGT8 delivery station in Alpharetta will the strike. Strikes are also happening at one Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in Southern California, New York City, Atlanta and Illinois.

And protesters were holding up signs outside an Upstate South Carolina Amazon fulfillment center.

The strike decision came after the workers say Amazon ignored requests to negotiate a new contract.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who represent thousands of Amazon workers at 10 facilities throughout the country, said Amazon missed its Dec. 15 bargaining deadline. Now, the unionized of the DGT8 delivery station in Alpharetta say they will stop delivering packages.

The group is demanding higher pay, hazard pay, better working conditions, higher-quality equipment and winter coats during cold delivery days.

“If Amazon Teamsters are forced onto the picket line, it’s because the company has failed its workforce,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “Amazon workers want to earn a good living, have decent health care, and be safe on the job. They are done with the disrespect, and if Amazon keeps pushing them, they will push them to strike.”

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

“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that 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 Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer. Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.

The Teamsters claim Amazon has illegally refused to recognize or bargain with its unionized workers.

“This is why we ed the Teamsters in the first place,” said Gregory Dunn, a worker at the Alpharetta delivery station. “If we don’t fight Amazon’s greed now, they’ll think they can get away with anything.”

The strike could interrupt the busy holiday season. Tom Smith, an economics professor at Emory University, said customers may notice the effects right away.

“If you click there and you pay an extra amount to have it delivered by the 22nd or 23rd and then there’s a strike, maybe that delivery certainty goes out the window. And that’s not going to be happy for many, many people,” he told Atlanta News First.

In a previous statement, Amazon fired back, accusing the Teamsters of unlawful behavior.

“The Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public — claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers.’ They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative about the independent small businesses who deliver on our behalf,” Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards said. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the country’s largest union, representing about 1.3 million employees in several industries — especially freight drivers and warehouse workers.

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