"Historic"

Amazon threatens massive strike before Christmas

According to the union, the e-commerce giant is refusing to negotiate better wages and working conditions.

(Bild: AFP)

Amazon is facing the threat of a massive strike in the crucial days before Christmas. Thousands of the online retailer's employees in the USA plan to walk off the job at 6 a.m. local time on Thursday shortly before the busiest days of the year, according to the Teamsters union.

Teamsters spoke of the largest strike against Amazon in American history. "What we're doing here is historic," said Leah Pensler, a warehouse worker in San Francisco. Locations in New York City, Skokie (Illinois), Atlanta, San Francisco and Southern California are affected. Union negotiators had stated that the e-commerce giant was refusing to negotiate better wages and working conditions with them.

Union criticizes "insatiable greed"
"If your package is late during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to sit down at the negotiating table and accommodate our members. They ignored it," said Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien. "These greedy managers had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they pushed workers to the limit, and now they're paying the price. This strike is on them."

"Amazon is one of the biggest and richest companies in the world," Amazon driver Gabriel Irizarry was quoted as saying in a post by the union on X. "They talk a lot about taking care of their workers, but when it comes down to it, Amazon doesn't respect us and our right to bargain for better working conditions and wages. We can't even afford to pay our bills.

The union says it represents around 10,000 workers in ten Amazon warehouses in the US. A strike could hit Amazon hard during the Christmas shopping season.