Teamsters union says staff in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco to stroll off the job over pay and circumstances.
Hundreds of Amazon staff in the USA are set to go on strike through the busy Christmas interval after union officers accused the retailer of refusing to enter negotiations for higher pay and circumstances.
The Teamsters union mentioned on Wednesday that warehouse staff would be part of the picket line in cities together with New York, Atlanta and San Francisco from 6am Japanese Time (11:00 GMT) on Thursday within the largest strike towards the corporate in US historical past.
“In case your bundle is delayed through the holidays, you may blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a transparent deadline to return to the desk and do proper by our members. They ignored it,” Teamsters Common President Sean M O’Brien mentioned in a press release.
“These grasping executives had each likelihood to indicate decency and respect for the individuals who make their obscene earnings potential. As a substitute, they’ve pushed staff to the restrict and now they’re paying the worth. This strike is on them.”
Teamsters, one of many greatest unions in North America, claims to characterize about 10,000 Amazon staff among the many retail large’s roughly 800,000-strong US workforce.
Amazon disputes the union’s declare to characterize any of its staff and says its conduct is illegitimate.
“For greater than a yr now, the Teamsters have continued to deliberately mislead the general public – claiming that they characterize ‘1000’s of Amazon staff and drivers’. They don’t, and that is one other try and push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel instructed Al Jazeera.
“The reality is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and tried to coerce Amazon staff and third-party drivers to hitch them, which is illegitimate and is the topic of a number of pending unfair labour observe costs towards the union.”
Amazon, the world’s second-biggest non-public employer after Walmart, has for years confronted accusations that it places earnings above secure circumstances at its amenities.
A US Senate committee earlier this week launched the findings of an 18-month investigation that discovered the corporate pushes its warehouse staff to fulfil orders at speeds that might trigger excessive charges of damage.
Amazon mentioned the report was “fallacious on the info and options selective, outdated info that lacks context and isn’t grounded in actuality”.
Final month, Amazon staff in additional than 20 nations, together with the US and the UK, introduced a “Make Amazon Pay” marketing campaign of protests and strike motion geared toward elevating consciousness about labour abuses and environmental degradation.
