Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien is calling on Amazon to provide better wages for union members and ‘negotiate’ in the days before the holiday rush.
Amazon workers at a Staten Island store in New York will join thousands of disgruntled workers as a strike against the retail giant enters its second day on Friday.
The Teamsters said in its release that “momentum continues to build” as workers demand “fair treatment” from the online retailer.
“The Amazon Teamsters movement is growing stronger every day and will not be stopped,” the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement posted on social media.
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The JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island joined thousands of Amazon workers to protest the organization’s refusal to “negotiate with its workers who chose to work with the Teamsters.”
The strike comes after the Teamsters said Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 union deadline to negotiate new contracts for higher wages, better benefits and safer working conditions.
Amazon workers organized by the Teamsters strike in Skokie, Ill., for the 2024 holiday season. (Fox News / Fox News)
Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien encouraged the latest warehouse to join the strike, saying it takes “courage” to stand up to big companies.
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“Amazon executives are cowards who use lies, threats and intimidation to avoid their responsibilities to employees and the community,” he said. “It takes real courage to stand up to a corporate bully, and the Amazon Teamsters are doing just that.”
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said “Santa would be disgusted” by Amazon’s behavior in “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on Thursday. (FOX Business/Getty Images/Photography/FOXBusiness)
The Staten Island workers joined thousands of other workers from seven locations in Skokie, Illinois; New York City; in Atlanta; San Francisco; and Southern California.
Although the Teamsters say the union represents about 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon locations in the US, the company does not recognize labor and union cooperation.
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Amazon says the Teamsters are “intentional [misleading] community” because they represent Amazon workers and drivers, said company spokeswoman Kelly Nantel in a statement to Fox Business.
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“For over a year now, the Teamsters have continued to deliberately mislead the public, claiming to represent ‘thousands of Amazon workers and drivers.’ They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Nantel said. “The truth is that the Teamsters threatened, intimidated and tried to force Amazon workers and third-party drivers to join, which is illegal and is the subject of many unfair labor lawsuits against the union.”
Amazon Teamsters strike on Dec. 19, 2024. (FOX 5 New York / Fox News)
Nantel also said the company “does not expect any impact on our operations.”
Teamsters spokeswoman Kara Deniz responded to Amazon’s statement, saying the company is “playing the American public with their fake news.”
“The truth is, there are more than 20 negotiation centers representing nearly 9,000 workers who organized successfully because for many years the company has been exploiting and torturing workers, and these workers are tired and fighting,” said Deniz.
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“No matter how big Amazon’s corporate PR machine is, they cannot fool the American public into believing that drivers who deliver Amazon packages in Amazon-branded vans do not work for Amazon,” Deniz added. “No one believes this nonsense. Amazon needs to stop avoiding its legal responsibility to these workers and come to the negotiating table now.”
Pilar Arias of FOX Business and Elizabeth Pritchett of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
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