Teamsters Alliance Grows Worker Power,
Strengthens Fight for Contract at Amazon
WASHINGTON, June 5, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- In a milestone for organized labor, the Amazon
Labor Union has formally affiliated with the 1.3 million-member
International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The affiliation supplies
renewed representation and stronger resources for Amazon workers —
behind the wheel and inside warehouses — as they organize and
demand a contract from the global behemoth.
Amazon Labor Union members will vote to ratify the affiliation
in the coming weeks. The affiliation was announced by Teamsters
General President Sean M. O'Brien on
Tuesday during the union's General Executive Board meeting in
Washington, D.C. The Teamsters'
board unanimously approved the affiliation agreement.
The newly chartered ALU-International Brotherhood of Teamsters
(IBT) Local 1 will represent the roughly 8,000 Amazon warehouse
workers at JFK8 and have jurisdiction across New York's five boroughs. This will be the
first ALU-IBT local union fully established under the Teamsters
Constitution. Members of ALU-IBT Local 1 will have access to the
financial and organizational resources of the Teamsters
International Union, the Teamsters Amazon Division, and Teamsters
Joint Council 16 in New York.
"Together we are creating an unstoppable movement to take on
Amazon. Building relationships with workers, communities
nationwide, and rank-and-file Teamsters has been essential to
creating the capacity to stand up to Amazon — and this affiliation
demonstrates it," O'Brien said. "It will require unprecedented
unity and long-term investment to finally force this company to
respect working people and fairly negotiate. Amazon is far and away
the greediest of American corporations. It does the most harm to
American workers in delivery and logistics. In this partnership,
the Teamsters and ALU will ensure Amazon workers at JFK8 realize
the first contract they are long overdue. We will continue to
expand our organizing campaigns nationwide. We will exhaust all
resources to hold Amazon accountable as a direct employer and
dismantle its corrupt DSP program. The Teamsters proudly set the
standard in the industry with our historic agreement protecting
340,000 UPS Teamsters, and we will make sure that standard is
upheld at every other company, and especially at Amazon."
"Today is an historic day for labor in America as we now combine
forces with one of the most powerful unions in the country to
take on Amazon together," said ALU President Chris Smalls. "Our message is clear. We
want a contract and we want it now. We are putting Amazon on
notice that we are coming. It is time to bargain."
"Affiliation between the Amazon Labor Union and the Teamsters
represents the very best shot for workers to collectively expand
the national, necessary, and militant campaign to win the rights
that we deserve," said Connor Spence
of the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus. "The chartering of a new
ALU-IBT local union in New York
will be a future model for Amazon organizing efforts. With the
support and strength of 1.3 million Teamsters across the country,
Amazon workers will not lose."
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
represents 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto
Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow
us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at
Facebook.com/teamsters.
Contact:
Kara Deniz, (202) 497-6610
kdeniz@teamster.org
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amazon-labor-union-formally-affiliates-with-teamsters-302165092.html
SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
