Assessing the Recent Strike at Amazon
In the days leading up to Christmas, Amazon workers organizing with the Teamsters at eight facilities across the US launched a coordinated strike against the logistics giant. Here’s a closer look at what the strike accomplished.
Amazon workers organized by the Teamsters walk a picket line in front of the DBK4 Amazon facility on December 20, 2024, in Queens, New York. (Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images)
An estimated 600 Amazon workers went on a short strike or participated in pickets from December 19 to Christmas Eve across eight warehouse locations, from Queens to San Francisco. The coordinated mobilization was an opening salvo to Amazon and a test of capacity for the Teamsters’ growing national network.
The union says it represents between 7,000 and 10,000 Amazon workers, either by authorization election or majority demand for recognition: a fulfillment center on Staten Island, an air hub in Southern California, a delivery station warehouse in San Francisco, and a handful of delivery contractors. It had given the company a deadline to begin bargaining with all these workers, though no one expected Amazon to actually fold over the holidays.
The Teamsters also recruited stewards, retirees, and rank-and-file United Parcel Service (UPS) workers to picket entrances to dozens of Amazon fulfillment warehouses nationwide. Picket-line extensions generally were handled by local officers and staff, and their effectiveness varied.
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