'Tired of Amazon's lies,' California Teamsters join strike threat

Amazon faces a growing threat of a major walkout in the United States, with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announcing Tuesday that workers at four of the online retail giant's Southern California facilities have "overwhelmingly" voted to authorize strikes, joining employees at sites in Illinois and New York City.

The announcement for DFX4, DAX5, KSBD, and DAX8 in California came after authorizations at the Amazon delivery station DIL7 in Skokie, Illinois on Monday as well as the Staten Island warehouse JFK8 and the DBK4 delivery station in Queens on Friday. Workers at all seven sites want Amazon to recognize their union and negotiate wages, benefits, and working conditions.

"It's past time that we fight for the pay and benefits we deserve," Raymond Scarborough, a driver at DFX4 in Victorville, said in a Tuesday statement. "Amazon isn't going to bully us out of demanding our rights."

Fellow driver Alexis Ayala, who is based at DAX5 in the City of Industry, declared that "we're tired of Amazon's lies."

"Amazon is responsible for our low pay and unsafe working conditions," Ayala continued. "My co-workers and I are ready to stand with our brothers and sisters around the country and fight back against this abusive company."

Following the NYC votes, the Teamsters gave Amazon until Sunday to start talks. The union said Tuesday that "after ignoring a December 15 deadline from the Teamsters to come to the bargaining table, Amazon now faces potential large-scale labor actions at a critical time of year when the company should be putting workers and customers ahead of corporate profits."

Tobias Cheng, a worker at the KSBD air hub in San Bernardino, also highlighted the anticipated impact of a holiday season strike.

"We know how important our air hub is to Amazon's operations," Cheng said. "If Amazon forces a strike, it might have a serious impact on customers throughout the region and beyond."

Increasing pressure on Amazon to improve conditions, U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday published a report detailing how, as he put it, "executives repeatedly chose to put profits ahead of the health and safety of its workers by ignoring recommendations that would substantially reduce injuries at its warehouses."

While Amazon—which was founded by Jeff Bezos, the second-richest man on Earth—released a lengthy statement decrying the report as "misleading," Teamsters leaders and unionized workers have echoed its conclusions in recent days.

"The corporate elitists who run Amazon are leaving workers with no choice," Teamsters general president Sean O'Brien said of the looming strikes on Tuesday. "Greedy executives are pushing thousands of hardworking Americans to the brink."

"Amazon rakes in more money than anybody, they subject workers to injury and abuse at every turn, and they illegally claim not to be the rightful employer of nearly half their workforce," he asserted. "This rigged system cannot continue. Amazon must be held accountable to workers and consumers alike. If workers are forced onto the picket line, Amazon will be striking itself."

Riley Holzworth, a worker at DIL7, similarly noted Monday that "Amazon is one of the biggest companies on Earth, but we are struggling to pay our bills."

"Other workers are seeing our example and joining our movement," Holzworth added, "because we are only going to get the treatment we deserve if we fight for it."