Amazon workers on strike at delivery facility in Skokie, Illinois
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Amazon workers in north suburban Skokie authorized a strike in the midst of the busy holiday delivery season, as workers at multiple Amazon facilities nationwide began a strike Thursday morning.
Workers walked off the job around 6 a.m. on Thursday and were picketing outside the Skokie Amazon facility. The Amazon employees were seen holding signs that read "Amazon is unfair."
Strikes are also happening at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and five other delivery stations in Southern California, New York City, and Atlanta. Amazon says it doesn't expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said the Amazon delivery drivers are fighting for a contract with better wages and workplace safety. The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
The union said it gave Amazon until Dec. 15 to negotiate a contract after hundreds of workers at the Skokie delivery facility organized with Teamsters Local 705 earlier this year, but so far Amazon has maintained the drivers are contractors, not employees, and has refused to even recognize a union.
"The way Amazon treats its workers is un-American," said Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien. "Amazon's so-called 'leaders' should treat their workers fairly — they just want to put food on the table for their families. Instead, Amazon executives risk ruining the holidays for their customers because of their addiction to putting profits over people."
Amazon delivery drivers in Skokie hit the picket line in Skokie back in June, staging an unfair labor practice strike, accusing the company of paying them insufficient wages, while often forcing them to drive in dangerous vans, and pressuring them not to report on-the-job injuries.
The Teamsters said Amazon has illegally refused to recognize their union or negotiate a contract.
Amazon issued this statement late Wednesday:
"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. 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."
Amazon workers on the picket line in Skokie denied the company's accusations.
"Amazon will refuse to negotiate with us, they will refuse to recognize us, they will refuse to work with us, even though we're the ones who work for them every single day and deliver hundreds of thousands of packages all across this country," Amazon delivery driver Luke Cianciotto said. "We have people who work here alongside my coworkers. Many of us, we don't have any Christmas presents under the tree this year, because the wages, the hours that we get working for Amazon just simply aren't enough to get by in today's economy."