Days after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced a strike against Amazon that threatens to disrupt the holiday shopping season, workers at a massive facility in Staten Island, New York, have joined the strikers, demanding better pay and safer working conditions.
The Staten Island Amazon facility, known as JFK8, employs more than 5,000 workers, and about 100 of them joined the picket line early Saturday, who were flanked by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
James came out in support of the workers, saying “the law is on your side” and that “Amazon can’t just share the benefits of your hard work at the top. They need to make sure that you are being paid.”
Multiple workers who spoke to the New York Times said that the $24 an hour wage they are making isn’t enough to make ends meet in Staten Island, a suburb of New York City, which has the highest cost of living in the United States.
“They’re way underpaying us,” said Thomas Clowery, who has worked at the Staten Island facility since 2018.
Still, among the states where workers are striking, Amazon’s $22 per hour wage is higher than each of their state’s minimum-wage salaries.
Regarding any possible disruptions for holiday shoppers, the president of the local union in Staten Island pinned the blame solely on Amazon.
“Amazon is jeopardizing the holidays for consumers so they can try to make an extra buck. Amazon workers are standing up to demand this corporation finally treat them with respect,” said Connor Spence, president of ALU-IBT Local 1.
That echoed Teamsters President Sean O’Brien’s statement at the launch of the strike.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it. These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit, and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them,” he said.
Amazon has rebutted many of the claims from the Teamsters, and said on Saturday that the Staten Island strike did not affect operations at the facility.
The online retail giant in a statement Friday also denied that there were any widespread disruptions of shipments to customers.
“Our logistics infrastructure was built to deliver on our customer promise. We believe in the strength of our network and plan for contingencies to minimize potential operational impact or costs,” the statement said.
A spokeswoman for the company slammed the Teamsters earlier this week, accusing the union of continuing to “intentionally mislead the public.”
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public — claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers.’ They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” said Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokeswoman. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.”
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The Staten Island facility is the only location with a successful unionization election by Amazon workers, who were initially a part of an independent union called the Amazon Labor Union. After bleeding support from workers and struggling to make gains with Amazon, the union affiliated with the Teamsters in June of this year.
The Amazon strike began on Thursday of this week at 6 a.m. at sites in Skokie, Illinois, Atlanta, Southern California, New York City, and San Francisco.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
