{"id":36665,"date":"2024-10-03T23:17:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T06:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36665"},"modified":"2024-10-03T23:17:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T06:17:50","slug":"san-francisco-amazon-warehouse-workers-join-growing-union-drive-with-teamsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/10\/03\/san-francisco-amazon-warehouse-workers-join-growing-union-drive-with-teamsters\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Amazon Warehouse Workers Join Growing Union Drive with Teamsters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Farida Jhabvala Romero<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oct 2, 2024 (kqed.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon.com workers pack orders at an Amazon fulfillment center on January 20, 2015 in Tracy, California. In San Francisco, Amazon warehouse workers have joined the Teamsters, demanding better pay and safer conditions while calling on the company to recognize their union. (Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updated 9 a.m. Thursday<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 100 Amazon<\/a> warehouse workers in San Francisco<\/a> have asked the company to voluntarily recognize their new union with the Teamsters, a move that experts said is unlikely to yield a contract deal without additional government or community pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees at the Amazon DCK6 facility in the city\u2019s Bayview neighborhood, who have been organizing with the Teamsters since last year, said they are pushing for better pay and safer conditions. Many work part-time and lack basic benefits, according to a union press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need good pay and benefits to take care of our families too. That\u2019s why we formed a union with the Teamsters,\u201d warehouse worker Jocelyn Vargas said in a statement. \u201cWe are essential workers, and it\u2019s time Amazon treats us that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement sent to KQED on Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for Amazon said: \u201cBecause this union has a track record of misrepresenting the facts, we\u2019re skeptical that their claims here are accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon, one of the world\u2019s largest online retailers, has for years weathered a wave of unrest and growing unionization efforts among its employees, who have cited insufficient pay<\/a> and safety concerns, including a high injury rate<\/a> and excessive indoor heat. The company\u2019s net income was $30.4 billion<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the e-commerce giant has resisted worker efforts to unionize and negotiate contracts, the Teamsters\u2019 increasing involvement is a \u201cgame changer,\u201d said Bill Gould, who teaches labor and employment law at Stanford University, because of the resources and expertise brought by one of America\u2019s largest unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Striking Antioch Georgia-Pacific Plant Workers Describe ‘Unsafe’ Conditions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 5,500 Amazon workers with the independent Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island, N.Y., which struggled to get recognized by the company, voted this summer to join<\/a> forces with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The union, which has 1.3 million members in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, said hundreds of Amazon drivers in Queens, N.Y., also officially joined their ranks last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Teamsters don\u2019t want Amazon to undercut the higher wages and workplace protections the union secured last year for workers at UPS, a competitor, Gould said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California regulators fined Amazon nearly $6 million<\/a> in June for violating safety rules aimed at preventing warehouse worker injuries. The company has appealed the citation and is still awaiting a hearing, said Tim Shadix, legal director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center. The California Department of Industrial Relations did not immediately respond to a request for an update on the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last decade, Amazon has been accused of unfair labor practices, such as surveillance and retaliation against workers for organizing, in hundreds of cases across the country, according to National Labor Relations Board records<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmazon is rigidly anti-union and has fought union organization at every step of the process,\u201d said Gould, a former chairman of the NLRB. \u201cThe law isn\u2019t as effective and the company has managed to delay worker rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are various ways workers can form a union, including by requesting voluntary recognition from their employer, as the San Francisco warehouse workers did. They are the first Amazon warehouse workers to do so, while others have sought recognition by petitioning for an NLRB election, the Teamsters noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KQED\u2019s Gilare Zada contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farida Jhabvala Romero Oct 2, 2024 (kqed.org) Amazon.com workers pack orders at an Amazon fulfillment center on January 20, 2015 in Tracy, California. In San Francisco, Amazon warehouse workers have joined the Teamsters, demanding better pay and safer conditions while calling on the company to recognize their union. (Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36667,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36665\/revisions\/36667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}