Union organizers have called an end to a five-day strike against Amazon by about 100 Atlanta drivers who joined workers at hundreds of other locations around the country.
While the huge company did not acknowledge any impact and rejected calls for bargaining, labor leaders said the strike achieved the goal of raising public awareness about the needs of drivers for contracts providing better pay and conditions.
“We told Amazon there would be consequences for not coming to the table,” said International Brotherhood of Teamsters spokeswoman Kara Deniz in a written statement. “There were. The Teamsters know now that Amazon is scared.”
The union maintains that thousands of drivers, whose direct employer is one of the many small delivery companies handling Amazon packages, are in fact employees of Amazon. The company argues that they are contractors.
Drivers say they operate trucks marked as Amazon vehicles and that most, if not all, of their work is for Amazon.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel rejected the union’s actions as “a false narrative.”
She said Amazon has invested more than $2.1 billion with the contractors — known as Delivery Service Partners — for training and to improve safety. Amazon said it will give the DSPs $660 million over the next year so they can raise wages and pay bonuses.
However, the DSP drivers do not work for Amazon, Nantel said.
The union says it had picket lines at about 200 Amazon locations. In metro Atlanta, drivers and supporters walked a picket line near a massive Amazon facility in Alpharetta.
The drivers who have joined the Teamsters or took part in the strike represent a small share of the workforce that delivers millions of packages to Amazon customers.
Drivers and Teamsters organizers said they did not expect the huge company to cave quickly to demands about recognition.
“We continue to demand Amazon come to the table, as they are legally obligated to do,” Deniz said. “As pickets break for the holiday, make no mistake that the Teamsters will never let up and workers will never stop fighting for their rights at Amazon.”
Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC
Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC
