About 10,000 Amazon employees authorize plan to strike Thursday : NPR

Teamsters Normal President Sean M. O’Brien, heart, is seen rallying with Amazon employees exterior the Staten Island Amazon JFK8 facility, on June 19, 2024, in New York.

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About 10,000 Amazon employees have been allowed to go on strike Thursday morning, demanding higher wages, safer situations and longer relaxation intervals.

The truck drivers union says employees in New York Metropolis, Atlanta, California and Illinois are becoming a member of the picket line. Warehouse employees and drivers at different amenities are ready to strike as nicely.

The strike comes amid a serious buying interval, however no data has been acquired in regards to the anticipated length of the strike.

“In case your package deal is delayed over the vacations, you possibly can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien stated. “We gave Amazon a transparent deadline to come back to the desk and do the precise factor by our members. They ignored that.”

Amazon employees in Staten Island, New York The first to unite in 2022. However Amazon has persistently disputed the choice in court docket, arguing that union leaders influenced how employees voted, an argument rejected by the Nationwide Labor Relations Board. Almost two years ago.

They began out as a small, unbiased union known as the Amazon Staff Union, however in June, they merged with the Teamsters, which represents 1.3 million individuals throughout the USA and Canada.

“For greater than a yr now, Teamsters have continued to deliberately mislead the general public — claiming to signify ‘1000’s of Amazon staff and drivers.’ They don’t, and that is one other try and push a false narrative,” an Amazon spokesperson stated. Kelly Nantel stated in a press release, the Related Press reported.

Among the many strikers are exterior contractors. Activity Pressure members used the phrases “employees” and “members” of their strike assertion.

Practically half of the individuals planning to strike are members of the Staten Island union.

“Amazon is likely one of the largest and richest corporations on the earth,” stated Gabriel Irizarry, a driver who works in Skokie, Illinois. “They speak quite a bit about caring for their employees, however when it comes all the way down to it, Amazon does.” They don’t respect us and our proper to barter for higher working situations and wages, and we can not even pay our payments.”

“What we’re doing is historic,” stated Leah Pensler, a warehouse employee in San Francisco. “We’re preventing an aggressive union-busting marketing campaign, and we’ll prevail.”