Teamsters workers strike at Amazon less than a week before Christmas

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced that 7,000 workers at seven Amazon facilities went on strike  Thursday, less than a week before Christmas Day, alleging that the company disregarded a Dec. 15 deadline that the union had set for contract negotiations.

The company said the strike won’t affect holiday operations  

“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.

The Teamsters have said the union represents about 7,000 Amazon workers across the country, which represents less than 1% of the company's workforce in the U.S.  According to CNN, the first location where workers began to strike was one in Queens, New York followed by Skokie, Illinois.

A representative for Amazon said the Teamsters has been using illegal tactics to pressure employees to join its efforts and she rejected claims the Teamsters represent thousands of the company's workers. The company said their operations won't be impacted by the Teamsters' strike.

“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement.

"The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union," she added.

O'Brien said Amazon executives had "every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they've pushed workers to the limit and now they're paying the price. This strike is on them."

The strike comes one day after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos met with President-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago.