Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are striking in several US cities to pressure the two major companies to recognize them as union members or meet their first labor contract demands.
The strikes, which began Thursday and Friday, follow other recent clashes between corporate America and organized labor. Large and established unions won significant concessions for employers this year after strikes by Boeing factory workers, port workers on the East and Gulf Coasts, video game players and hotel and casino workers on the Las Vegas Strip.
But workers at Starbucks, Amazon and some other well-known consumer brands are still fighting for their first contracts. Although Amazon says the powerful Teamsters union represents them, many are refusing to accept the organizing efforts of drivers and warehouse workers who voted to unionize. Starbucks has long resisted merging its stores, but has agreed to a deal by the end of the year.
Why are the holidays happening now?
Strikes, especially during holidays, periods of high economic activity, can help unions exercise leverage in negotiations or flex their muscles with support from workers and sympathetic consumers.
Both Amazon and Starbucks have seen a wave of organizational efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has focused attention on frontline workers and the impact of economic inequality on the lives of wage-earning Americans.
Workers organized at bookstores, where unions are rare, and had success with campaigns at some stores operated by Apple, Trader Joe’s and outdoor gear company REI.
But turning those wins into contracts can be difficult. Workers at Amazon and Starbucks, which were not unionized before the pandemic, have yet to reach an agreement with the Seattle-headquartered e-commerce and coffee giants.
John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, said he thinks workers at Amazon and Starbucks are “desperate” to make progress before President-elect Donald Trump appoints a Republican majority to the National Labor Relations Board. is expected to be less friendly to trade unions during his administration.
“The unions want to publicize these disputes and put political pressure on the companies,” Logan said in a written statement. “If these disputes drag on into next year and are fought out mainly through labor councils and the courts, unions and workers will almost certainly lose. This may be their last, best chance to publicly pressure companies before Trump takes office.”
However, Trump has also given some indication that he may be friendlier to labor in his second term than in his first. Last month, he tapped Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Labor Department in his new administration, a Republican congressman with strong support from unions, including the Teamsters. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien also spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer.
Strikes at Amazon led by Teamster
Amazon workers at seven delivery locations in Southern California, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta and Skokie, Illinois, are on strike after the company ignored a union deadline for contract talks, the teams say. At midnight Saturday, the Teamsters said they would strike at a popular New York warehouse where workers voted to join the new Amazon Workers Union in 2022 and have since chosen to join the Teamsters.
A prominent labor group says it is fighting for higher wages, better benefits and safer working conditions for workers who experience economic insecurity while many of Amazon’s workers work for the $2.3 trillion company. It was not disclosed how many Amazon warehouse workers or drivers joined the strike.
The union has focused mainly on organizing delivery drivers, who are not company employees because they are hired directly by contractors hired to handle Amazon’s package deliveries.
Such a setup gives Amazon greater protection from merger attempts in an industry dominated by Teamsters — transportation and trucking. However, the union argued before the National Labor Relations Board that the drivers, who wear Amazon’s ubiquitous gray-and-blue vests and operate similarly colored vans, should be classified as company employees.
Meanwhile, the online retailer has accused the union of spreading a “false narrative” about the thousands of workers it claims to represent. Amazon also disclosed its salary, saying it provides warehouse and shipping workers a base wage of $22 an hour plus benefits. It recently increased hourly pay for subcontracted delivery drivers.
In September, the NLRB, which has taken a more pro-labor stance under President Joe Biden, filed a complaint that found the drivers to be Amazon co-workers. The agency also accused Amazon of illegally failing to bargain with the Teamsters over a contract for drivers at a California delivery center.
The Teamsters union says it also represents Amazon warehouse workers, including thousands of workers at the main New York City fulfillment center who voted to be represented by the Amazon Labor Union.
Amazon is challenging the results of the 2022 warehouse election, alleging that the Amazon Labor Union and the federal labor board rigged the vote. A regional NLRB director filed a complaint last year accusing Amazon of violating the law by refusing to bargain with the union.
Amazon, in turn, is challenging the NLRB’s constitutionality in federal court along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. In June, the Supreme Court sided with Starbucks in a case brought by the company, making it harder for the agency to win court rulings in labor disputes.
Contract negotiations at Starbucks
Unlike Amazon, Starbucks has contract negotiations.
But the Starbucks Workers United union, which organizes workers at the company’s 535 U.S. stores through 2021, said the company has not followed through on a commitment it made in February to strike a labor deal this year.
The union also wants Starbucks to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges filed by employees with the National Labor Relations Board. The agency has also filed or settled hundreds of charges against Amazon.
As the strikes begin Friday in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, Workers United said Starbucks is offering an economic package for union baristas now with no new pay raises and 1.5% raises in future years.
Union leaders said the strikes also included stores in Denver, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday. Picket lines have expanded in New York, St. Louis and Pittsburgh to Brooklyn and Long Island, the union said in an article in Sunday’s X.
Labor leaders said dozens of Starbucks stores were affected by the strike, without providing a specific number.
“We were ready to bring the framework home this year, but Starbucks didn’t,” said Lynne Fox, president of Workers United. “After all Starbucks have said how they value partners across the system, we do not accept an immediate zero investment in barista wages and the resolution of hundreds of unfair labor practices.”
Starbucks said Workers United ended its bargaining session early this week. The company also says it offers $30 an hour in wages and benefits for baristas who work at least 20 hours a week.
Starbucks workers walked out twice last year. Workers United said the latest strikes could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve.
Patricia Campos-Medina, who recently ran for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in New Jersey and heads the Cornell University Labor Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said she expects more union activism before Trump takes office.
Campos-Medina said Trump’s reactions will give the public a chance to see what his “commitments to the working class” are.
-Hallelujah Hadero, Associated Press business writer
Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this story.