Thousands of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) warehouse workers across the United States walked off the job today in a strike aimed at pressuring the retail giant to negotiate a contract with their union.
The walkout, which began early Thursday morning, comes during the crucial holiday shopping season and is being called the "largest" strike against Amazon by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Workers in major cities like New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco are participating in the strike, according to the Teamsters, who represent roughly 10,000 employees at 10 of Amazon's facilities.
"If your holiday package is delayed," said Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien on Wednesday, "you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed. We gave them a clear deadline to come to the table and negotiate a fair contract with our members. They chose to ignore it. This strike is entirely on them."
The union had set a December 15th deadline for negotiations to begin, after workers at several facilities voted to authorize the strike.
However, Amazon maintains it does not anticipate any disruption to its operations. A company spokesperson accused the Teamsters of "intentionally misleading the public" and using aggressive tactics to pressure employees and independent contractors into joining the strike.
Despite the walkout, experts believe Amazon may be able to weather the disruption due to the limited size of the unionized workforce.
Unionized facilities make up just 1% of Amazon's hourly staff, and some cities, like New York, have multiple warehouses and delivery centers.
Additionally, Amazon has previously stated its preference for a direct relationship with its employees and may be hesitant to negotiate with a union for fear of encouraging further unionization efforts.