Amazon workers at the company’s only unionized warehouse in the U.S. have joined a broader Amazon strike. International Brotherhood of Teamsters (International Brotherhood of Truck Drivers, in free translation).
The Teamsters-affiliated , which represents workers at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island in New York City, asked members to leave work at midnight Saturday. Videos the group reposted on X showed people marching from the union office to the expanding warehouse through a light snow, and gathering at the bus stop where workers began organizing their colleagues three years ago.
They are demanding that the company talk to workers locally and at other facilities where Amazon employees or contract drivers have sought to be represented by the Teamsters.
Workers at one of Amazon’s air cargo hubs in San Bernadino, California, were also joining the strike on Saturday afternoon, the Teamsters said in a statement.
The Teamsters, who represent 1.3 million people, earlier this week called on workers at seven delivery warehouses in California, Georgia, Illinois and New York to go on strike starting Thursday. It’s the biggest test yet of whether the union’s nascent organizing campaign has made inroads into the world’s largest online retailer. Teamsters employed by other companies picketed additional Amazon warehouses.
Company spokespeople say the strike has so far not impacted deliveries. And it’s unclear whether the picket at the Staten Island facility, the only major distribution center in New York City, will halt operations. The company also has large warehouses in New Jersey and Connecticut, as well as several smaller delivery depots spread across the five boroughs.
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JFK8 workers voted to join the fledgling ALU in 2022, a historic victory for those seeking to organize at the second-largest private employer in the United States. But the group subsequently descended into infighting and debates over strategy. Its previous leadership, ousted in an election earlier this year, had dismissed the strike as a tactic and, some workers say, let much of the activism on the warehouse floor lapse.
In a conference call for outside volunteers held this week, ALU representatives said the goal of a strike at JFK8 would, in part, be to attract other employees to learn more about the organization. Workers did not plan to stop trucks from entering or leaving the facility, they said.
