Amazon strike hits Southern California warehouses during holiday rush

Workers at several Amazon warehouses across the country went on strike early Thursday morning, part of an effort by the Teamsters union to pressure the e-commerce giant to recognize burgeoning unions at its facilities.

The work stoppage comes in the final stretch of the holiday shopping crush when customers are banking on Amazon to deliver last-minute gifts. The company released a statement claiming the strike would not affect its ability to deliver packages on time.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced the strike would affect seven warehouses, including three in Southern California — in Victorville, Industry and Palmdale — and one in San Francisco. It was unclear how many workers had gone onto the picket lines.

“What we’re doing is historic,” said Leah Pensler, a warehouse worker at the San Francisco facility, according to a news release from the Teamsters. “We are fighting against a vicious union-busting campaign, and we are going to win.”

Frustrations over pay and working conditions have fueled sporadic organizing efforts among workers at Amazon warehouses in recent years, and the effort has picked up speed among the company’s vast network of delivery drivers.

Cole Dunkelbarger of Chicago strikes with local Amazon truck drivers in South Gate on Aug. 4.

(Zoe Cranfill / Los Angeles Times)

The Teamsters announced a nationwide campaign to unionize Amazon’s warehouse and delivery workers in the summer of 2021. The effort was aimed not only at growing its ranks but also protecting the wages and workplace standards of its members who work at UPS and other companies that are under competitive pressure to replicate Amazon’s methods.

In all, the Teamsters said roughly 10,000 Amazon employees and contracted workers at various Amazon facilities have pledged to affiliate with the union, a small slice of the 800,000 workers employed in Amazon’s U.S. warehouses. But the Teamsters have not held formal union elections, and the proposed bargaining units at these facilities have not been recognized by the National Labor Relations Board, which has the authority to order Amazon to come to the bargaining table.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel accused the Teamsters of falsely presenting their union as formally representing many of the Amazon employees and subcontracted drivers since they had not completed the process for recognition by the National Labor Relations Board.

“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,” Nantel said in an emailed statement. “What you see here are almost entirely outsiders — not Amazon employees or partners — and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters.”

In early December, the union gave Amazon a deadline to come to the bargaining table. The union said Amazon’s refusal to meet its demand to negotiate a labor agreement set the strike in motion.

The strike, which includes workers at warehouses in New York, Atlanta and other cities, is the largest labor action to date against Amazon, the union said.

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” said Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien, according to the news release.

Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of Cornell University’s Worker Institute, said the walkouts were an opportunity for the Teamsters to demonstrate the depth of support for unionizing in warehouses and to draw in more workers.

She said that because Amazon is a large employer with a vast network, potential disruptions would be limited. Nonetheless, she said, “it’s a time when Amazon would like to shine and not have distractions. It’s a moment of high leverage for workers.”

The e-commerce giant has waged a long, largely successful battle to discourage unionization efforts at its facilities, and has been accused repeatedly of engaging in anti-union tactics in violation of federal law — accusations the company denies.

The federal labor board has ordered a union election by workers at an Alabama warehouse to be repeated several times because of allegations of interference by Amazon.

In 2022, Amazon Labor Union, an independent labor group, won a watershed union election at the JFK8 facility on Staten Island in New York — the first successful unionization effort at any of the company’s U.S. warehouses. The union, however, struggled to secure other wins, losing an election at the neighboring facility and another in Albany soon after.

Amazon Labor Union helped Amazon workers at a fulfillment center in California’s Moreno Valley to launch a union drive at the facility in 2022, but the effort stalled soon after with the group withdrawing the election petition it filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

After being hampered by internal division, Amazon Labor Union agreed to affiliate with the Teamsters, which provided more stable financial footing and resources.

The labor push received a boost this year from the NLRB, which has called into question Amazon’s model of relying on a network of independent companies to employ tens of thousands of delivery drivers. An initial ruling this summer by an NLRB regional director in Los Angeles determined that Amazon was a “joint employer” of drivers who delivered packages out of the company’s Palmdale warehouse. After that decision, the NLRB office in Atlanta determined Amazon should be held liable for allegedly making threats and other unlawful statements to drivers seeking to unionize in the city.