Amazon faces strike menace in US forward of Christmas
Amazon staff within the US may go on strike forward of Christmas, after members of the Teamsters union voted to assist industrial motion.
The employees say the web retail big has refused to recognise their union and ignored a 15 December deadline to carry talks over their contract.
Amazon’s services in Southern California, New York and Illinois may very well be affected, in line with a Teamsters assertion.
“The company elitists who run Amazon are leaving staff with no selection,” mentioned Teamsters Basic President Sean M O’Brien.
“Amazon should be held accountable to staff and customers alike. If staff are pressured onto the picket line, Amazon can be hanging itself,” he added.
The union mentioned it represents 1000’s of staff at 10 Amazon services throughout the US.
However an Amazon spokesperson, Eileen Hards, mentioned the union “has continued to deliberately mislead the general public – claiming that they characterize ‘1000’s of Amazon workers and drivers’. They do not”.
“The Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and tried to coerce Amazon workers and third-party drivers to hitch them, which is illegitimate”, she added.
Earlier this week, a congressional investigation concluded that the e-commerce big pushes its US warehouse staff to satisfy orders at speeds that would trigger excessive charges of damage.
The investigation led by Democrat senator Bernie Sanders additionally mentioned the corporate had refused to introduce modifications to enhance security due to considerations about its income.
Amazon mentioned the report was “mistaken on the info”, and featured “selective, outdated info that lacks context and is not grounded in actuality”.
The corporate, which employs roughly 800,000 individuals within the US, has confronted accusations about unsafe circumstances at its warehouses for years.
These considerations ramped up in the course of the Covid pandemic, when e-commerce exploded, resulting in protests by its staff all over the world.
Amid the controversy, founder Jeff Bezos mentioned the corporate wanted to do higher by its workers.
Senator Sanders, who is understood for his pro-worker stance, launched an investigation into Amazon’s practices in June 2023. Senate staffers carried out 135 interviews and reviewed greater than 1,000 paperwork.
Their evaluation of public information discovered that warehouses operated by Amazon recorded over 30% extra accidents than the warehousing business common in 2023.
