YCD News – On October 12, Amazon delivery drivers located in Los Angeles County in the United States held a strike, accusing Amazon of providing unfair labor treatment. The main reason why the delivery drivers went on strike was that the sudden and dramatic increase in the number of orders due to Amazon’s fall Prime Day sale caused them to enter a full workload, but Amazon did not raise their pay.
Starting in July, drivers at Amazon’s DAX8 delivery station in Palmdale, California, went on a three-month strike. The strike is just part of a recent wave of labor actions by Amazon’s U.S. delivery drivers.
Michael Lieb, an Amazon driver involved in the strike, said, “PrimeWeek is both dangerous and exhausting for Amazon employees – both drivers and warehouse workers, permanent and temporary.” He said that employees are paid the same salary as usual, but the workload has doubled, and Amazon is obsessed with profits and disregards the safety of its employees.
Amazon delivery drivers in the U.S. reportedly began a strike on June 24, and they set up picket lines at 18 warehouses across the U.S., covering California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Georgia and Massachusetts.
Victor Mineros, a spokesman for Teamsters Local 362 (Teamsters Local 362), said that Amazon has long overworked its employees and offered cheap pay, and that the striking drivers are directly challenging Amazon’s exploitative business model, and that with the support of their local communities and the one million Teamsters across the country, these workers will win for themselves the the pay they deserve.
YCD has learned that in April of this year, 84 workers at Amazon’s Palmdale distribution station joined forces with the Teamsters to form Local 362, the first Amazon Teamster union.Local 362 has also reached an agreement with Amazon’s delivery service partner (DSP), Battle-Tested Strategies (BTS), on a contract. However, Amazon has refused to recognize and honor this contract. Instead, Amazon engaged in dozens of unfair labor practices in violation of federal labor laws, including firing unionized employees.
The striking drivers are demanding that Amazon stop the unfair labor practices or they will continue their strike until Amazon reinstates the illegally fired employees, recognizes the Teamsters union, honors the contract negotiated by the workers, and negotiates with the Teamsters union to address the low wages and dangerous working conditions.
It’s worth noting that this comes on the heels of Amazon finally agreeing to install air conditioning in all of its small package delivery vehicles after repeated pressure from Amazon workers and the Teamsters. This move allows millions of delivery drivers to avoid working in extreme temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.