Amazon workers affiliated with the Teamsters union walked off the job Thursday to protest the company’s refusal to come to the bargaining table. Veuer’s Matt Hoffman has the story.
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00:00Some unionized Amazon workers are on strike during the holiday rush.
00:04According to the AP, workers affiliated with the Teamsters union, mostly delivery drivers,
00:09walked off the job Thursday at delivery hubs across the country,
00:12including in San Francisco, Atlanta, and New York.
00:15This is Georgia delivery driver Samantha Thomas.
00:18You have to do more for the people who serve you, right?
00:21We work for you at the end of the day. We represent you.
00:24And if we're going to represent you, we want you to properly represent us.
00:28Amazon has been refusing to negotiate with unionized drivers,
00:31saying that because they work for contractors, Amazon does not technically employ them.
00:35According to the New York Times, in at least one case,
00:38the National Labor Relations Board has declared the drivers are employees,
00:41and that Amazon is breaking the law by refusing to bargain with them.
00:45The AP reports that Amazon has also been objecting to a certified union of warehouse workers in Staten Island,
00:50and in the process, the company has challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB itself.
00:55The Times quotes an Amazon statement calling picketers outside the hubs
00:59almost entirely outsiders, not Amazon employees or partners,
01:02and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters.
01:07The company has also said that it does not expect strikes to affect its holiday deliveries,
01:11although whether that will be the case remains to be seen.
01:13The strike comes on the heels of the release Sunday of a report on Amazon
01:17by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
01:20According to CBS News, the report alleges that the company ignored its own internal findings
01:25on how to avoid overworking its employees to the point of injury.
01:28Amazon disputes this.