Amazon staff within the US may go on strike forward of Christmas, after members of the Teamsters union voted to help industrial motion.
The employees say the web retail large has refused to recognise their union and ignored a 15 December deadline to carry talks over their contract.
Amazon’s services in Southern California, New York and Illinois could possibly be affected, in accordance with a Teamsters assertion.
“The company elitists who run Amazon are leaving staff with no selection,” mentioned Teamsters Basic President Sean M O’Brien.
“Amazon have to be held accountable to staff and shoppers alike. If staff are compelled onto the picket line, Amazon will likely be hanging itself,” he added.
The union mentioned it represents hundreds of staff at 10 Amazon services throughout the US.
However an Amazon spokesperson, Eileen Hards, mentioned the union “has continued to deliberately mislead the general public – claiming that they characterize ‘hundreds of Amazon workers and drivers’. They do not”.
“The Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and tried to coerce Amazon workers and third-party drivers to hitch them, which is unlawful”, she added.
Earlier this week, a congressional investigation concluded that the e-commerce large pushes its US warehouse staff to satisfy orders at speeds that would trigger excessive charges of damage.
The investigation led by Democrat senator Bernie Sanders additionally mentioned the corporate had refused to introduce modifications to enhance security due to issues about its earnings.
Amazon mentioned the report was “unsuitable on the details”, and featured “selective, outdated data that lacks context and is not grounded in actuality”.
The corporate, which employs roughly 800,000 individuals within the US, has confronted accusations about unsafe circumstances at its warehouses for years.
These issues ramped up in the course of the Covid pandemic, when e-commerce exploded, resulting in protests by its staff world wide.
Amid the controversy, founder Jeff Bezos mentioned the corporate wanted to do higher by its workers.
Senator Sanders, who is thought for his pro-worker stance, launched an investigation into Amazon’s practices in June 2023. Senate staffers performed 135 interviews and reviewed greater than 1,000 paperwork.
Their evaluation of public information discovered that warehouses operated by Amazon recorded over 30% extra accidents than the warehousing trade common in 2023.
