The five-day strike called by Teamsters at Amazon ended on Christmas.
The workers’ actions across multiple warehouses were limited, but it marked another important step in the fight against the corporate giant.
On December 18, incoming President Donald Trump hosted Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. After years of tension, Bezos was eager to build a closer relationship with Trump. He had just donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, praised him for his “energy around reducing regulation,” and also kept the Washington Post from endorsing a presidential candidate, which showed his willingness to deal with Trump on good terms. But as they enjoyed their luxurious dinner, Amazon workers were finalizing plans for the largest worker action across the country in the company’s history, set to begin the following day.
This image encapsulates what Trump’s second presidential term could look like: on one side, billionaires strategizing how to maximize their profits and erode workers’ rights; on the other, a precarious and multi-ethnic working class organizing for higher wages, better conditions, and a voice in the workplace.
As an Amazon worker said in an interview with Left Voice: “With Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos together… problems.”
At the picket line at Amazon’s JFK8 facility in Staten Island workers spoke with us about the grueling conditions in the logistics giant’s warehouses. pic.twitter.com/SFpTPqTxiI
— Left Voice (@left_voice) December 22, 2024
Far from the comfort of Trump’s estate, under adverse weather conditions, Amazon workers risked everything. In NYC, employees at warehouses in Queens and Staten Island braved the snow and cold, as well as the fear of putting their job at risk during the busy lead-up to Christmas, to walk out and protest. They would soon be joined by baristas at hundreds of Starbucks locations across the country — also fighting for their first contract — in their “strike before Christmas.”
In New York, hundreds of community members joined workers in the snow at the picket line — even at the isolated JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island. Workers, students, local activists, and tenant organizers, many wearing keffiyehs, stood in solidarity with Amazon workers in their struggle against the multi-trillion dollar corporate giant.
A JFK8 Amazon worker with four years at the warehouse shared, “It’s not easy to be here… When I heard about the strike, I was anxious. But seeing all of you united for one common cause, I have to say: it’s worth the risk.”
A new layer of rank-and-file workers took the lead in sustaining these walkouts. Despite a massive police presence and harassment from the company, many stood up to managers and police, found creative ways to endure the long hours on picket lines, and built community by sharing their frustrations and aspirations for change.
These walkouts were part of a national action by drivers and warehouse workers at multiple Amazon warehouses, including DGT8 in Atlanta, DFX4, DAX5, and DAX8 in Southern California, DCK6 in San Francisco, and DIL7 in Skokie, Illinois.
Additionally, on December 23, workers at Amazon’s Garner, North Carolina facility, a massive warehouse employing over 5,000 people, filed for a union election under the Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment (CAUSE), independent of Teamsters.
The action came amid growing public support for Amazon workers. In a national poll from 2022 after the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) victory at JFK8, 75 percent agreed that Amazon workers “need union representation in order to have job security, better pay, and safer working conditions.” Even the Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act, signed into law by New York Governor Hochul during the strike, reflects this growing support. The grueling conditions and high injury rates at the company can no longer be ignored.
Despite the strike’s limits, the action built important momentum toward future struggles against Amazon. Workers got a glimpse of the impact of their fight on the working class as a whole. As one worker noted, “This is just the first wave, the first push for the contract we rightfully deserve.”
Sean O’Brien And The Teamsters Bureaucracy
Before delving into the specifics, it’s essential to understand the context surrounding these walkouts. Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the U.S., where only 6 percent of private-sector workers are unionized. The company stands out with its union-busting tactics and high turnover, replacing 3 percent of its workforce weekly. However, Amazon’s impunity is increasingly being challenged.
Since the historic unionization at JFK8 Fulfillment Center in Staten Island over two years ago, Amazon has been stalling on union recognition and contract negotiations. But, despite some setbacks, organizing continues to grow. The ALU’s affiliation with Teamsters and recent unionization attempts among drivers have bolstered these efforts, though not without contradictions.
According to the Teamsters, 10,000 of Amazon’s 800,000 employees are unionized. While still a minority, Amazon cannot return to the “pre-ALU era” without a massive crackdown on union organizing. Yet, this is not enough to force Amazon to negotiate a contract.
Breaking the “factory dictatorship” at Amazon remains a herculean task. Large-scale actions have not yet materialized. A JFK8 worker noted, “They said unionizing was impossible. Look where we are now. That day [of a full strike and a contract] will come.”
The recent actions did not significantly disrupt business but delayed some deliveries. For Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and the union leadership, one of the main goals was media attention as part of building public pressure on Amazon. Stories of grueling conditions reached millions, and Christmas package delays became a national topic.
For the Teamsters leadership, this action primarily revolved around gaining union recognition and shaping the future of organizing efforts at Amazon. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) also represents hundreds of thousands of UPS delivery workers. Confronted with competition from Amazon’s delivery operations, the union aims to recruit new members from Amazon to expand its dues base and strengthen its influence over both competing corporations. In essence, the Teamsters are wagering that this strike could serve as a foundation for a larger, more protracted effort to organize Amazon across the United States, ultimately as a strategy for self-preservation.
Last year, O’Brien diverted a potential strike at UPS that could have significantly impacted working-class organizing. While celebrated by many, the contract agreement did not eliminate the huge gap in compensation and working conditions between drivers and warehouse workers. This year’s actions at Amazon allowed O’Brien to position his leadership as “more combative.”
In the run-up to the presidential elections, O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention and is already playing an advisor role to the Trump administration. In efforts to align the working class with the Republican Party, The Teamsters president wrote in an article that he expects the GOP to become “the working-class party.” In an obvious demonstration of the class character of the new administration, Bezos is also seeking to expand his influence in the coming years. This positioning by O’Brien has little to do with empowering workers. While O’Brien tries to rail the working class into a far-right program led by Trump, it’s crucial to have a perspective of class independence, independent from both political parties.
For the local leaderships — Amazon Labor Union, Amazonians United, and CAUSE, for example — the goals and realities differ significantly. The organizations within the warehouses aim to expand their organizing efforts, engage more rank-and-file members, and strengthen the sectors capable of halting production.
As we wrote in a previous article:
the current strike at Amazon is about a lot more than just the Teamsters, union recognition, or winning a first contract. Indeed, beyond the interests of the IBT leadership, this strike is fundamentally an expression of the frustration of the hundreds of thousands of Amazon warehouse workers and drivers, who, like millions of other precarious workers across the country, were forced to risk their lives working through the pandemic but received nothing in return except runaway inflation.
The Need For Rank-And-File Organizing
At JFK8, while only a minority of workers walked out, deeper support for the action was evident. The backing of 700 workers who pledged to strike and the dozens of workers who took on roles during the walkout and picket lines, signals a growing base of rank-and-file organization.
Over decades of neoliberalism, unions have been weakened and the working class has become increasingly fragmented, which Amazon’s high turnover and union-busting tactics exemplify. Yet change is underway. As JFK8 worker Eulalia said before the strike, “[the union] is like family, I definitely have the support I need. You don’t get that in Amazon, definitely. Amazon treat us like slaves.”
On the picket line, workers coordinated food, picketing shifts, and solidarity. At a worker’s gathering on Sunday, many shared personal stories. One worker said, “It gets cold at night, but we stay together, keep each other warm, and laugh. They don’t care about us, but we will make them care.”
Amid widespread anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, picket lines featured chants in multiple languages, and flyers were distributed in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Creole. Workers united beyond national origin as one fist against Amazon.
In another display of solidarity, Staten Island JFK8 workers supported the Queens DBK4 picket lines, and DBK4 drivers joined the JFK8 walkout in the midst of a snow storm at midnight. On December 24, DBK4 drivers also joined Starbucks workers on a picket line in SoHo.
Amazon workers also found out quickly that their struggle was not only against the boss, but that they would also be confronting the police, who had come, at the request of Amazon, to suppress the pickets. At JKF8, dozens of NYPD officers station themselves outside the warehouse to guarantee the free flow of vehicles in and out of the facility. In the case of DBK4, the police even set barricades to avoid trucks being blocked. Police arrested Jorgeasyn Cardenas, a driver from the facility, for simply showing solidarity with the picketers, and Anthony Rosario, a UPS driver who had turned out to show support for the strikes. As if this was not enough, at the DKB4 facility, Amazon flooded the food and warming station with freezing cold water in order to disrupt the pickets.
One of the highlights of these strikes was the community support. At JFK8, which is isolated from residential areas, over one hundred people organized by the ALU Community Support committee joined the picket line at critical moments. Many community and left organizations were also a key component of holding the picket line. CUNY students and faculty, many of whom work at Amazon, consistently supported the strike.
The unity among workers and students is a powerful example that needs to be expanded in future strikes. As CUNY students organized with Left Voice said: “Many students are workers and so their interests are deeply tied to the fate of the whole working class. The alliance between workers and students helps both and our fates are linked in the battle for a better world.”
Organizing and mobilizing the rank and file remains the major challenge. Breaking the culture of fear imposed by the company and fostering self-organization are key. Together, drivers and warehouse workers need to develop their own spaces to strategize, discuss, and decide each major step in their union struggle as a united force. This requires organizing from below; It’s the workers’ jobs and livelihoods that are on the line, so they deserve to be the protagonists of their struggle.
Local organizing efforts must avoid normalizing top-down Teamsters tactics and instead focus on empowering workers through direct action and broad participation. Mike, a JFK8 worker who has over four years at Amazon and has multiple injuries, said, “This won’t stop until we get everything we deserve. Talk to coworkers, family, and supporters. Make this grow because, at the end of the day, we will win.”
The strike is over, but the fight must continue. Continuing to expand rank and file strength will be essential to force Amazon to negotiate a first contract. If there is any retaliation against workers, it must be met with a wide, democratic campaign defending their rights to organize.
A victory for Amazon workers will be a victory for the whole working class.