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Cops bust picket line in New York as Teamsters strike at seven Amazon warehouses

Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers at seven facilities in the metro areas of San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Southern California, and New York City are out on strike today, in what the union says is the largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history. Unionized workers at Staten Island’s JFK8 fulfillment center have also authorized a strike and could soon follow. Workers in all these locations—five delivery stations and two fulfillment centers—have already shown majority support and demanded union recognition.

The strike’s timing is strategic: package volumes balloon around the holidays, known as “peak season,” so it’s no easy feat for Amazon to cope with disruption. A July interim report from the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee found that injury rates skyrocket during Prime Day and the holiday season. Amazon’s relentless productivity quotas are nearly impossible to meet safely, forcing workers to barter their backs and knees for $18 an hour.

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