Teamster driver vows to ‘hit Amazon exhausting’, requires strike earlier than Christmas: ‘Uninterested in being mistreated’

Teamsters drivers have expanded their strike against Amazon simply days earlier than Christmas, and 1000’s are staying robust, vowing to carry on for so long as it takes to carry the web retail big to the desk.

Teamster driver Christopher Velez is amongst these protesting on the picket line. Standing exterior in freezing twelve-degree temperatures early Monday in Maspeth, New York, he spoke with FOX Enterprise’ Madison Alworth concerning the ongoing strike.

“Put your self in our sneakers,” he stated. “We’re right here. We’re preventing for one thing. We’re uninterested in being mistreated as slaves. Slavery ended a very long time in the past, so I simply hope that all the pieces is resolved quickly and all the pieces will return to regular.”

TEAMSTERS UNION LAUNCHES HISTORIC NATIONAL STRIKE AGAINST AMAZON: “PAY THE PRICE”

Teamster drivers on strike towards Amazon (left). Christopher Velez (proper) is a union member on strike in Maspeth, Queens, New York. (Getty Pictures)

Velez stated he was “not likely apprehensive” concerning the prospect of Amazon ever coming to the desk as a result of “there might be a degree the place they must negotiate with us a technique or one other.”

“They don’t like that we’re Amazon workers, however we’re Amazon workers and we’re preventing right here,” he continued. “It is international. It is international, from Europe to the US. We will hit them. We will hit them exhausting.”

Amazon stood agency, nevertheless, insisting that they’d no plans to sit down down with the Teamsters as a result of, of their phrases, they “don’t symbolize any Amazon workers.”

Kelly Nantel, Amazon nationwide spokesperson told FOX Business last week that “there isn’t any strike” and described the motion as a “protest”.

“No Amazon worker or driver is concerned on this exercise. What now we have is a protest that was created and manufactured by the Teamsters to make a degree,” she stated, including : “However I feel it is actually vital for viewers to grasp that the Teamsters do not symbolize any Amazon workers, and so they do not symbolize any of our third-party drivers both.

TEAMSTERS UNION LAUNCHES NEW DIVISION TO HELP AMAZON WORKERS: “Defending Workers Against Uncontrolled Exploitation”

Teamsters spokeswoman Kara Deniz responded to Amazon’s remarks, insisting that the corporate is “gaslighting the American public with its false narratives.”

“The reality is that greater than 20 bargaining models representing almost 9,000 workers have efficiently organized as a result of for a few years the corporate has exploited and mistreated employees, and these employees have had sufficient and are preventing again,” she declared.

“Regardless of how massive Amazon’s PR machine is, they cannot idiot the American public into believing that drivers delivering Amazon packages in Amazon-branded vans do not really work for Amazon,” he stated. added Deniz. “Nobody believes this nonsense. Amazon should cease avoiding its authorized obligations to those employees and are available to the negotiating desk now.”

The strike, which started final week, initially concerned seven facilities in California, Georgia, Illinois and New York.

Employees at two further websites – State Island and one other location in California – walked off the job over the weekend to hitch the strike.

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Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien inspired the growth.

“Amazon executives are cowards who disguise behind lies, threats and intimidation to keep away from their duties to employees and the general public,” he stated. “It takes a whole lot of braveness to face as much as a company bully, and that’s precisely what the Amazon Teamsters are doing.”

The union says Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline to barter new contracts that present increased wages, higher advantages and safer working situations.

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Sarah Rumpf-Whitten of FOX Enterprise contributed to this report.