Above photo: The picket line on the second day of the Amazon Teamsters strike in Queens. Wyatt Souers.
Today marks the second day of the largest strike in US history against multi-billion dollar corporation Amazon.
And picket lines across the country show no sign of slowing down.
Amazon workers at facilities across the country are out on an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike, demanding that the company recognize their union and begin negotiations for a contract.
“Momentum continues to mount as more workers fight for fair treatment from this $2 trillion corporation,” wrote the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The thousands of Amazon workers on strike across the country are organized with the Teamsters, one of the largest unions in North America and which led a historic and successful struggle against shipping giant UPS in 2023. “The Amazon Teamsters movement grows bigger and stronger every day and will not be stopped.”
Starbucks workers, organized with Starbucks Workers United, are joining the momentum, beginning a ULP strike at stores in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago for five days starting on Friday.
“This week, less than two weeks before their end-of-year deadline, Starbucks proposed no immediate wage increase for union baristas, and a guarantee of only 1.5% wage increases in future years,” wrote Starbucks Workers United. “Our unfair labor practice (ULP) strikes will begin Friday morning and escalate each day through Christmas Eve… unless Starbucks honors our commitment to work towards a foundational framework.”
Deliver Drivers Dispute Amazon’s “Third Party” Claims
Amazon, which makes billions in profits in the United States each year, has thus far refused to recognize any Amazon union or negotiate contracts with workers in the United States. Part of the company’s argument is that their delivery drivers, many of whom are seeking to be represented by the Teamsters union, are not technically employees of the company and are instead employed by third parties.
Delivery drivers themselves have disputed this. “Clearly we work for Amazon if we have to wear your uniform, deliver your packages, and deliver out of your truck. Can’t tell me anything different,” said Tyrick Pollard, who has been working as a delivery driver out of the DBK4 Amazon facility in Queen, New York, for two years.
“We wear Amazon clothes, we drive Amazon vans, we deliver all the Amazon packages. If Amazon says we’re fired, we’re fired,” said Ronaldo Ifill, also a delivery driver at DBK4. Dozens of workers, including Pollard and Ifill, were walking the picket line on Friday morning, fighting for union representation.
On the picket line, drivers also spoke to the difficulties of working at the company as it ramps up its demands of workers during peak holiday season. Ifill claimed that Amazon overloads workers’ delivery vans with packages, and that in order to meet increased customer demand, Amazon hires more drivers, and makes current drivers train them up, with zero bonus or incentives.
Amazon workers spoke to the need to level the playing field across the logistics industry. Amazon has been able to keep its enormous profits so high partly by vastly underpaying its workforce in comparison to other companies in the industry. Workers at UPS and Fedex, which have been organized with unions such as the Teamsters for decades, have significantly higher wages and more comprehensive benefits than Amazon delivery drivers. Workers on the picket line hope that by unionizing and negotiating a contract, they can be guaranteed their rights as workers and a dignified wage.
“UPS, Fedex and all that, they get almost 40 dollars [per hour]. Why are we still getting 21, 22 dollars? It’s not right. And we don’t have no job security,” said another delivery driver on the picket line at DBK4. “I want the union stuff to go through, because that’s what we need. UPS got it, the postal service got it. We deserve it.”
Police Stand With Amazon
On Thursday, December 19, the first day of the strike, picketers at the DBK4 facility in Maspeth, Queens, were met with repression by the New York Police Department, who arrested a delivery driver, Jogernsyn Cardenas, who attempted to turn his van around the join the picket line, as well as 30-year Teamster and former UPS worker Antonio Rosario. Both Rosario and Cardenas remained undeterred and were back on the picket line later that day and on Friday. NYPD officers were also out in the dozens on Friday and once again interfered with the picket in order to let Amazon delivery vans through and facilitate the corporation’s activity, threatening more arrests if picketers did not periodically move to the side to let the vans in and out of the DBK4 facility.
“The police officers are violating our first amendment rights, they’re threatening to arrest our workers. We don’t want our workers being arrested,” Rosario told Peoples Dispatch on the picket line on Friday morning.
“We’re allowing a few trucks out every few minutes. We’re trying to be compliant, because we don’t want our workers being arrested. At the end of the day, we just want these workers to be safe, fight for better pay, get a union, get all the things that union workers have,” Rosario continued. “This is a multi-billion dollar corporation. It looks to me like the cops are protecting them, not us. But we’re gonna continue to be out here, keep our spirits up.”
The NYPD were calling the entrance to the DBK4 a roadway, and alleging that picketers were blocking the roadway, Dave Cintron, Teamsters Local 804 Trustee, told Peoples Dispatch. “This is a tactic that they’re using to try to get these trucks out, which is not right,” Cintron continued. “They’re actually helping out Amazon.”
Despite being threatened with arrest, workers at DBK4 show no signs of abating. Leaders like Rosario led chants down the picket line, shouting “we work hard, everyday, we make them billions, everyday!” in the cold city air.
“The only way you’re going to get what you want is fighting,” said Jogernsyn Cardenas, back on the DBK4 picket line the day after he was arrested.