Atlanta Amazon workers join nationwide strike during busy holiday season

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A general view inside an Amazon fulfillment center as workers gear up for Black Friday and Christmas (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

ATLANTA - Workers at an Atlanta Amazon delivery center will join the picket line on Thursday morning as part of what their union calls the largest strike against the e-commerce company in history.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced that workers at Atlanta's DGT8 center and six other Amazon facilities across the country will begin to strike at 6 a.m. to pressure the company for a labor agreement just days before Christmas.

The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized strikes in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. 

"If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it," said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. "These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit, and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them." 

The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.

In response, Amazon says it doesn’t expect an impact on its operations during the strike.

The strikes happening Thursday are taking place in Atlanta, San Francisco, southern California, New York City, and Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are "prepared to join," the union said.

"Amazon is one of the biggest, richest corporations in the world," said Gabriel Irizarry, a driver at DIL7 in Skokie, Ill. "They talk a big game about taking care of their workers, but when it comes down to it, Amazon does not respect us and our right to negotiate for better working conditions and wages. We can’t even afford to pay our bills."

The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do a 2022 election that led to the union victory at one of its warehouses on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.

Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, are not its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for a third-party business, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers every day.

"For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative," Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement.

The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer. Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for drivers amid growing pressure.