US Teamsters tackle union-busting Amazon

HubMP2012

DECEMBER 21, 2024

By George Binette

In an unprecedented move, thousands of members of the Teamsters union launched co-ordinated strike action on 19th December at seven facilities operated by global logistics giant Amazon in the states of California, Georgia, Illinois and New York. While the potentially indefinite strikes will directly impact a tiny proportion of Amazon’s operations, the action is by far the most significant collective challenge the notoriously anti-union corporation has so far faced.

In US parlance, the action springs from “unfair labor practices” with roots dating from the start of the decade. An independent workers’ organisation, the nucleus of what became the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), sprung up against the backdrop of the Covid pandemic at the company’s JFK8 warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island. By early 2022, the ALU had recruited a substantial part of the nearly 8,000-strong workforce before its shock win in an official union recognition ballot that March.

The ALU win contrasted sharply with the narrow defeat of an established union that had sought recognition at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama complex. A judge from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has, however, ordered a third ballot in a ruling that found Amazon had unduly interfered with the ballot.

Despite the NLRB certifying the ALU’s victory, Amazon has stubbornly refused to negotiate with the union for two-and-a-half years, fuelling internal tensions among ALU activists. In June this year, ALU members at JFK8 voted to affiliate to the Teamsters, the fourth largest union in the US with some 1.3 million members. In August a so-called reform slate went on to sweep local leadership elections.

While union members at the Staten Island complex are not yet part of the action, they looked likely to join the strike this weekend (21st-22nd December). Teamsters at Amazon’s DBK4 in nearby Queens did walk off the job before dawn on Thursday with scores forming a vibrant picket line. Officers from the New York Police Department (NYPD) also turned up in force at DBK4.

The cops proceeded to arrest a van driver, who had refused to cross the picket line, before attacking the line itself and arresting one of the Teamster organisers, who had previously been a key activist at the strongly unionised UPS. The NYPD reportedly had officers waiting near the JFK8 site in anticipation of picketing at the site. In the words of Jacobin contributor, Alex Press, “Perhaps the NYPD should be considered a third-party contractor for Amazon as well.”

And the gross exploitation of so-called third-party contractors is central to the current confrontation between the Teamsters and the corporation, which has also defied an instruction from the NLRB to enter negotiations with the union concerning pay and conditions more generally. Amazon has adamantly refused to recognise any responsibility as an employer to sub-contracted delivery drivers. Tens of thousands of these drivers ostensibly work for “Delivery Service Providers” (DSPs), but Amazon actually dictates virtually all their terms and conditions.

Coincidentally (or otherwise), Amazon’s founder and former CEO, Jeff Bezos, generally regarded as the world’s second richest man, dined at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Florida estate the night before the walkouts began. Among the other dinner guests was the one individual richer than Bezos – Elon Musk. The two multi-billionaires have a shared interest not only in more corporate tax cuts, but also in deregulation and the potential gutting, if not complete abolition, of the NLRB, which has taken a modest pro-union tilt during the Biden years.

Trouble brewing at Starbucks

 The day after Amazon workers launched their action, baristas belonging to the Starbucks Workers United (SBU) union started a rolling programme of action initially across three cities – Chicago, Los Angeles and the coffee giant’s birthplace, Seattle, Washington. The action has spread over the weekend to stores in Columbus, Ohio, Denver and Pittsburgh.

Backed by resources from the Service Employees International Union, the SBU has won recognition elections at more than 500 Starbucks’ shops over the last three years and has been engaged for much of 2024 in contract negotiations on behalf of more than 10,500 members. Starbucks’ management appears to have reneged on earlier promises and the union is pursuing the largely symbolic action across five days with the aim of gaining leverage over the hectic holiday season.

George Binette, a Massachusetts native, is a retired union activist, vice-chair of Camden Trades Council and former Trade Union Liaison Officer of Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP.

Image: Union supporters including MP Diane Abbott rally outside Amazon’s UK headquarters in Shoreditch, East London as part of an international day of action on “Black Friday” 2023. Credit: Global Justice Now.