WPBN: Workers at three Amazon facilities in Southern California joined hundreds of other employees across the country on Thursday to participate in a nationwide protest against Amazon. The action took place during the busy holiday shipping season.
Workers were heard yelling “Amazon you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side” outside of the factory located in the City of Industry. They claim that among other things, they are requesting that they be paid more and given more job security.
“We get no vacation, sick days. We’ve had workload that has substantially increased over the last six years that I’ve been working,” Vanessa Valdez, a delivery driver stated. “I’m not a greedy person. We’re not greedy. We want what’s fair for a full day’s hard work.”
Thursday morning at six o’clock, workers representing the Teamsters union walked off the job at delivery hubs in City of Industry, Palmdale, and Victorville districts. Additionally, the Teamsters union is the union that represents workers in San Bernardino.
Following Amazon’s failure to meet the deadline for contract discussions on December 15th, the union announced that it had begun a strike that day. It is estimated that roughly 10,000 warehouse workers and truckers around the country are affected by Amazon’s refusal to recognize their union.
In addition to disrupting facilities in Georgia, New York, Illinois, and Southern California, the strikes were carried out in seven other places across the United States.
Less than a week before Christmas, the union is claiming that this is the largest strike ever attempted against the internet retail giant.
“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,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien stated. “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.”
The majority of the strikers, according to an Amazon representative, are not Amazon workers.
“What you see here are almost entirely outsiders-not Amazon employees or partners-and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters. The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and have brought in outsiders to come and harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous. We appreciate all our team’s great work to serve their customers and communities, and are continuing to focus on getting customers their holiday orders.”
Since John Gutierrez and other delivery drivers work with outside logistics firms, they are not officially Amazon workers. Additionally, Amazon does not acknowledge them as union employees, despite their claims that they recently voted to form a union.
“It just doesn’t sit right with me. How are you going to tell us we’re not amazon employees when we wear your stuff, we support you, we make Amazon look good,” Gutierrez stated.
RELATED:Â Historic Amazon Strike Puts Christmas Deliveries at Risk, Workers Warn of Delays
According to Gutierrez, they have an excessive amount of work.
“I want to say we have a minute to deliver every package, and we’re forced to take our 30, some of us don’t even take our lunches and stuff like that because it’s so time-consuming… if you have to use the bathroom, some of us have to go pee in a bottle. Just for us to use the bathroom, we can’t go 10 minutes without getting into trouble,” Gutierrez stated.
According to the union, Amazon has been declared a joint employer by the National Labor Relations Board.
“We’re branded from head to toe with Amazon. Our vans are (too). When I go knock on the door, I don’t say, hey, I’m a DSP with Amazon. I say I’m Amazon,” Alfredo Muñoz, a delivery driver stated.
While the other locations have unionized by majority support without government-administered polls, one of the New York facilities’ elections was approved by the National Labor Relations Board.
“This is not intentional to the mess of Christmas, but it’s our livelihood, like we’re fighting for our livelihood here,” Muñoz stated.
