Amazon Warehouse workers across the US are on strike ahead of the holiday rush

“These greedy leaders have had every opportunity to demonstrate decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said. he said in a public statement. “Instead, they pushed the workers to the limit and now they are paying the price. This strike is on them.”

This has been a record year for Amazon. According to the company’s Q3 earnings report, the profit from July to September increased 55 percent in 2024 compared to the same period last year. In a press release published with the earnings report, Amazon’s president and CEO, Andy Jassy, ​​said the company was “excited about what we have in store for customers” for the holiday season. The report anticipated net sales to be between $181.5 billion and $188.5 billion in Q4.

“We have not seen any impact on our operations” from the strikes, says Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel. “We appreciate all of our team’s great work serving their customers and communities, and we continue to focus on getting customers their holiday orders.” Nantel also accused the Teamsters of harassing and intimidating Amazon employees.

At DBK4, located in Queens, New York, hundreds of Amazon workers marched on the sidewalk in front of the exit to a parking garage, sometimes verbally confronting delivery drivers as they passed the picking line. Several delivery vans honked in unison as they waited in line to exit the garage. Some protesting workers held signs saying “Amazon obeys the law.” The marchers included people who came out in solidarity, carrying signs representing the New York State Nurses Association and City University of New York (CUNY) students.

Meanwhile, New York Police Department officers stood in the street, sometimes yelling and pushing workers as they stepped off the sidewalk. Just after 9 a.m. ET, NYPD arrested a delivery driver who tried to get out of his delivery van just outside the garage and join the strikers. Around 9:50 am, NYPD announced over loudspeakers that all workers standing in the street would be arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Soon after, the NYPD placed a Teamsters organizer under arrest, although it is unclear if they were on the way. Eventually, police set up barricades outside the garage and began personally organizing delivery vans with Amazon loss prevention workers who didn’t strike.