Alongside a Teamsters truck parked nearby, there was a giant inflatable pig holding a giant bag of money in one hand and choking an Amazon employee in the other.
Luc Albert Rene, a union member who has been an Amazon delivery driver for two years, tells WIRED that the December 15 deadline came after the union had two marches—one in September, and one in October—asking the company to negotiate. Rene says the company did not respond to the union—however, it sent representatives to have one-on-one meetings with workers and ride-alongs with drivers to discourage union membership.
Rene says the union is asking for better pay, better benefits, and improved safety and “respect” for workers. While making deliveries, he says he’s often had to drive in dirty vans or vans with dangerous braking issues. But he says he’s in good spirits about the Thursday strike.
“Coming out today, I feel the joy to be honest,” Rene says. “It’s very powerful, people actually understand what we are fighting for.”
This is not the first Amazon worker action of the 2024 holiday season. In November, workers in more than 20 countries, including the United States, protested or went on strike between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The labor federation UNI Global Union, which organized the action, said in a press release that their goal was to “hold Amazon accountable for labor abuses, environmental degradation, and threats to democracy.”
Workers at Amazon warehouses in the US have gone on strike before, but never so close to the holidays. However, in 2018, Amazon workers in Germany and Spain walked off the job the week before Christmas.
The JFK8 union in Staten Island—which became the first Amazon warehouse in the country to unionize in 2022, and became affiliated with the Teamsters in June of this year—started an online fundraiser to compensate the striking workers for lost wages, food, and possible legal or medical expenses. The fundraiser has raised more than $25,000 as of Thursday morning. However, that union is not currently on strike.
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