Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are on strike in several US cities, trying to pressure the two big companies to recognise them as union employees or meet the demands of the inaugural labor contract.
The strikes, which began on Thursday and Friday, followed other recent spats between U.S. corporations and organized labor. Large and established unions have secured significant concessions from employers this year following strikes by Boeing factory workers, port workers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, gaming artists and hotel and casino workers on the Las Vegas Strip.
But employees at Starbucks, Amazon and some other major consumer brands are still fighting for their first contracts. Amazon refuses to recognize the organizing efforts of drivers and warehouse workers - many of whom voted to join the union - even though the powerful Teamsters union claims to represent them. Starbucks has long resisted unionization in its stores, but has agreed to negotiate a contract by the end of the year.
Why are the strikes happening now?
Strikes - especially those that take place during holidays, a time of high economic activity - can help unions exert bargaining leverage or flex their muscles by winning the support of workers and sympathetic consumers.
Both Amazon and Starbucks experienced a wave of organizing efforts following the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic focused attention on frontline workers and the impact of economic inequality on the lives of wage-earning Americans.
Employees have been organizing in bookstores, where unions are scarce, and have been successful with campaigns in some stores operated by Apple, Trader Joe's, and outdoor gear company REI.
However, turning these wins into contracts can be challenging. At Amazon and Starbucks, which were not unionized before the pandemic, workers have so far failed to reach agreements with the Seattle-based e-commerce and coffee giants.
John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, said he thinks Amazon and Starbucks employees are "desperate" to make progress before President-elect Donald Trump appoints a Republican majority to the National Labor Relations Board, which is expected to be less union-friendly during his administration.
"The union wants to make these disputes public and put political pressure on the companies," Logan said in a written statement. "If these disputes drag on into next year, and if they are largely conducted through the labor board and the courts, unions and employees will almost certainly lose. This may be their last and best chance to publicly pressure the companies before Trump takes office."
But Trump has also given some signals that he might be more employee-friendly during his second term than during his first. Last month, he picked Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer to head the Labor Department in his new administration, elevating a Republican congresswoman who has strong support from unions including the Teamsters. Teamsters President Sean O'Brien also spoke at the Republican National Convention this summer.
Hamster-led strikes at Amazon
According to the Teamsters union, Amazon employees are striking at seven delivery stations in Southern California, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta and Skokie, Illinois, because the company ignored a Sunday deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Workers at a major warehouse in New York, who voted to join Amazon's nascent union in 2022 and have since decided to join the Teamsters, will also strike at midnight Saturday into Sunday, according to the Teamsters.
A major union group says it is fighting for higher wages, better benefits and safer working conditions for Amazon employees, many of whom are experiencing economic insecurity while working for the $2.3 trillion company. It has not yet indicated how many Amazon warehouse workers or drivers will join the strike.
The union has focused mainly on organizing delivery drivers, who the company says are not its employees because they are directly employed by contractors Amazon hires to deliver packages.
This type of arrangement provides Amazon with greater cover from union organizing attempts in an industry - transportation and trucking - that is dominated by the Teamsters. But the union has argued before the National Labor Relations Board that drivers who wear Amazon's ubiquitous gray-and-blue vests and drive similarly colored vans should be classified as company employees.
The online retailer, meanwhile, has accused the union of pushing a "false narrative" about the thousands of workers it supposedly represents. Amazon also boasted about its wages, saying it provides warehouse and shipping workers with a base wage of $22 an hour plus benefits. It also recently raised the hourly wage for delivery drivers hired by subcontractors.
In September, the NLRB, which has taken a more pro-labor stance under President Joe Biden, filed a complaint finding that the drivers are common employees of Amazon. The agency also accused Amazon of illegally failing to bargain with the Teamsters union 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 a large New York fulfillment center who voted to be represented by an Amazon union.
Amazon has objected to the results of the 2022 warehouse election, claiming that Amazon's union and the Federal Labor Relations Board misrepresented the vote. The NLRB regional director issued a complaint last year accusing Amazon of violating the law by refusing to bargain with the union.
Amazon, in turn, challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB in federal court, along with Elon Musk's SpaceX. In June, the Supreme Court made it harder for the agency to obtain injunctions in labor disputes, siding with Starbucks in a case brought by the company.
Contract negotiations at Starbucks
Unlike Amazon, contract negotiations were ongoing at Starbucks.
However, the Starbucks Workers United union, which organizes workers at the company's 535 U.S. stores starting in 2021, said the company has not kept its February commitment to reach a labor agreement this year.
The union also wants Starbucks to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges that employees have filed with the National Labor Relations Board. That office has also initiated or settled hundreds of charges against Amazon.
In launching strikes that began Friday in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, Workers United said Starbucks has proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for unionized baristas now and 1.5% raises in future years.
Union leaders said the strikes spread to outlets in Denver, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, and baristas in New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis plan to join the pickets on Sunday.
Union leaders, without giving a specific number, said the strike now affects dozens of Starbucks stores.
Starbucks said Workers United ended negotiations early this week. The company also said it already offers baristas who work at least 20 hours a week $30 an hour in wages and benefits.
Last year, Starbucks employees walked off the job twice. 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 U.S. Senate as a Democratic candidate in New Jersey and heads the Workers Institute at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said she expects more union activity before Trump takes office.
Trump's responses will give the public a chance to see what his "commitments to the working class" are, Campos-Medina said.
Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this article.
author: HALELUYA HADERO
APnews.com / photo: wikipedia commons / gnews.cz-jav
English 
Czech 
Spanish 
French