The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has announced a strike against Amazon on Thursday, involving drivers at a facility in Alpharetta and workers at several other Amazon locations across the country.
What does that mean for deliveries in Georgia? Here’s what you need to know.
Q: How many workers in the Atlanta area voted to authorize a strike?
A: About 100 drivers in Alpharetta who make deliveries for Amazon have voted to authorize a strike.
That’s a tiny portion of Amazon’s workforce of more than 34,000 people in Georgia at dozens of locations around the state. By comparison, the company hired about 12,000 seasonal workers in Georgia for the holiday season, including 8,000 in Atlanta.
Q: What has Amazon said about how its operations would be affected?
A: Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An Amazon spokesperson said earlier this month the company was not worried about the timing of the strike threat before the holidays.
“Historically, these protests have not impacted our operation or our ability to deliver for our customers,” she said.
However, Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a news release late Wednesday: “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Q: What do these workers do?
A: The drivers operate some of the Amazon vans you see on the streets and are drivers for an Amazon “Delivery Service Partner.” Amazon has more than 4,400 Delivery Service Partner firms that deliver packages to its customers globally.
Amazon says the drivers don’t work for Amazon and instead work for “multiple independent small businesses that deliver on our behalf.”
But a Teamsters spokesperson said: “No matter how massive Amazon’s corporate PR machine is, they cannot fool the American public into believing drivers delivering Amazon packages in Amazon-branded vans don’t actually work for Amazon.”
That disagreement is part of the labor dispute.
Q: Are there other locations where Teamsters went on strike at Amazon facilities?
A: The Alpharetta facility is one of a number of locations nationally where Teamsters said they would strike against Amazon on Thursday.
Alpharetta was the eighth Amazon-linked facility to authorize a strike. Others include locations in New York, Illinois and California, according to the Teamsters.
Amazon is currently fighting Teamsters campaigns by warehouse workers in San Francisco and delivery drivers in Queens, New York, and Victorville and City of Industry in California.
Q: Why is this happening now?
A: For pure economic leverage, there’s no better time for drivers to walk out. With Christmas just days away, much of the nation — and much of Amazon’s gigantic business — is focused on delivery of gifts and other purchases. Tens of millions of packages are in transit each day. With Amazon’s reputation entwined with its rapid delivery options, a disruption to its massive supply chain is at least potentially a threat to its efficiency.
The Teamsters may also be making a political calculation. On one hand, the outgoing Biden administration’s appointments have been pro-labor, including members of the current National Labor Relations Board. On the other, O’Brien, the Teamsters president, might hope for favorable treatment from the incoming Trump administration, since he spoke at the Republican National Convention and prevented the union from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, President-elect Donald Trump’s opponent.
