CVO TALK -- for a revolutionary workers movement!

this work is ongoing. Am still reading the In These Times article, which is by far the best of the left. I include comments on part of it here and will add summaries of the rest later. I had bold-faced key words and sentences here for ease of reading but I forgot that that formatting will not appear here.

December 2024 Amazon strike and other Amazon worker issues

“Amazon Teamsters at JFK8 Join Historic Strike”. Teamster Press Release, https://teamster.org/2024/12/amazon-tea ... ic-strike/, “At midnight tonight, Amazon Teamsters at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island will join the historic strike against the corporate giant. They join thousands of Teamsters striking[/b] at DBK4 in New York City; DGT8 in Atlanta; DFX4, DAX5, and DAX8 in Southern California; DCK6 in San Francisco; and DIL7 in Skokie, Ill.; ...as well as picketing at hundreds of other Amazon facilities.” “...This large-scale labor action....” (Bold-face added..)
“In June, over 5,500 Amazon workers at JFK8 affiliated with the Teamsters and chartered Amazon Labor Union (ALU)-IBT Local 1. They overwhelmingly authorized a strike....”
Teamsters Launch Largest Strike Against Amazon in American History, “...the thousands of Amazon workers who organized with the Teamsters.” “Workers will join the picket line from DBK4 in New York City; DGT8 in Atlanta; DFX4, DAX5, and DAX8 in Southern California; DCK6 in San Francisco; and DIL7 in Skokie, Ill. Amazon Teamsters at other facilities are prepared to join them.” “ Nearly 10,000 Amazon workers have mobilized a movement and joined the Teamsters. “

PBS, What to know about Amazon workers strike at multiple delivery hubs, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/wh ... 0to%20know: “a strike at seven of the company’s delivery hubs” “The Teamsters mainly have focused on organizing delivery drivers, who work for contractors that handle package deliveries for the company. “ “The International Brotherhood of Teamsters also says the union represents some Amazon warehouse workers.
Where? “The strikes are taking place at three delivery hubs in Southern California, and one each in San Francisco, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, and Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement.” (What are the delivery hubs mentioned here. There are at lest three types of hubs.)
How many? “The union hasn’t said how many workers are participating in the strike, nor how long it will go on. Vinnie Perrone, the president of a local Teamsters union in metro New York” Ha ha ha! See above. “The union, which claims to represent 10,000 Amazon workers at 10 facilities, said workers in more locations were prepared to join the fight.” “A company spokesperson said Thursday the strikers were 'almost entirely outsiders, not Amazon employees or partners, and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters.' “

CNN, The strike against Amazon is over but Teamsters warn: December 26, ‘Stay tuned’ https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/26/business ... index.html, “Thousands of Amazon workers have ended their days-long strike against the company, according to the Teamsters union.” “Thousands of Amazon delivery drivers across a handful of states went on strike late last week in the thick of the holiday package season.” “The union claims to represent 7,000 Amazon workers nationwide, or less than 1% of the company’s US workforce.” .
.A video: https://x.com/i/status/1871355790445121781
pic (place of this and vid?)https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GflQpf_WIAA ... name=large

Laval Quebec Amazon picket photos:https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10 ... 1473537588 Dec. 7,, (Great photos!! Amazon set to make 1st offer to unionized workers after 6 months of talks: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal ... -1.7418182 “”Amazon is set to make its first offer next month in a bid to reach a collective agreement. “ 6 mos. negots. No strike, picket. Demandin $26/hr., 6$CAN increase “After a two-year effort, workers there unionized with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) in May. “ 200 workers at Laval.


TDU: https://www.tdu.org/celebrating_the_hol ... K32HIbJOFg a strike in nine cities

Union organizations celebrate as Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act signed into law amid Amazon strike, https://qns.com/2024/12/warehouse-worke ... ffEcCkp4gg

In these times: https://inthesetimes.com/article/amazon ... bpF_R5vnTA “Amazon Strike Takeaways: Walk-Outs Slowed Packages, Boosted Union Power, “Workers describe tens of thousands of packages delayed—and a strong sense of empowerment within warehouses” “escalating series of strikes by a minority of workers across the logistics behemoth’s supply chain” nine warehouses, “it’s Adifficult to know how disruptive the limited-duration walkouts were to Amazon’s operations. Amazon has claimed the strikes have had no effect. Several workers at different facilities, however, told In These Times that the number of packages they moved per day dropped by a third or more.  “ “whether the strikes help build momentum for a national movement to organize Amazon.” “Workers participated in strikes in nine cities. Teamsters also extended picket lines to dozens of Amazon fulfillment centers across the country, leafleting drivers and warehouse workers” CAUSE in NC coordinated, “ had reached a majority”  with cards.” the ten-second breaks Amazon allots workers every half hour to do stretches  “ carrying pkgs up ladders Workers at Amazon’s San Bernardino air hub in Southern California, who demanded union recognition December 11, walked off the job at noon the same day. “Anna Ortega, a warehouse worker at KSBD air hub. ​“We are supposed to be processing up to 200,000 packages a day. These last couple days, they sliced it in half. For them to say that there is no impact — I think it’s very clear to us here today that absolutely there is.” Empowerment. “The Teamsters have made inroads into organizing Amazon drivers in the company’s 4,400 delivery service partners (DSPs) program, who are nominally employed by contractors while Amazon retains full control of their operations. Two big air hubs—KSBD in Southern California and KCVG in northern Kentucky, both previously part of independent union organizing efforts — have now affiliated with the Teamsters.  “The escalating strike pickets boomeranged on Sunday, December 21 back to Queens, New York, where two dozen delivery station warehouse workers joined more than a hundred drivers who kicked off the strike at 6 a.m. on December 19.” “this was the first time warehouse workers and drivers had struck together. ​“We were met by a whole lot of drivers who are also picketing,” says Pollock. ​“The drivers have been leading this struggle. One thing we learned is that it’s a lot more impactful when you include drivers and warehouse workers together. We’re seeing it impact Amazon’s operations.” “ Amazon has adapted to pickets outside the facility and has brought in new drivers, Pollock says, ​“we hit them with a walkout on the inside of the warehouse. Because of the lower headcount inside the warehouse, less packages are getting loaded into vans. “ “

https://teamster.org/2024/12/amazon-tea ... ic-strike/
Amazon warehouse workers in Garner NC to decide on union in election next month
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/busin ... rylink=cpy “thousands of Amazon warehouse workers in southern Wake County will decide whether to organize in a rare election...”  Feb. 10 and Feb. 15. warehouse has 4,770 workers “the group Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment had collected union authorization cards from at least 30% of the facility’s workforce.” “CAUSE seeks to negotiate wages and working conditions on behalf of RDU1 workers. Its demands include $30-an-hour minimum starting wages and full-hour paid breaks during shifts, which can last more than 10 hours.” “While obtaining 30% of employee authorization cards is required to hold an election, CAUSE will need support from more than 50% of voters in next month’s election to be victorious.” “At RDU1, Amazon has held voluntary union education sessions, which CAUSE members describe as union-busting efforts.” “North Carolina is a right-to-work state, which means no employee will have to pay union dues even if the union wins the election and negotiates their contracts.”Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/busin ... rylink=cpy
Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/busin ... rylink=cpy

Democracy Now, "Thousands of Amazon workers https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/19 ... ecognition, “..
Amazon Workers Launch Historic Strike to Demand New Contracts & End Unsafe Labor Practices, Dec. 20, 2024, https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/20/amazon_strike, “Thousands of Amazon workers ...” “Teamsters have also set up picket lines at many other warehouses nationwide.” workers continue to join picket lines at hundreds of Amazon fulfillment centers across the country, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel claimed in a statement most of the workers on strike are, quote, “almost entirely outsiders, not Amazon employees or partners,  “As workers continue to join picket lines at hundreds of Amazon fulfillment centers across the country,.... Amaxon says: “almost entirely outsiders” Conor Spence, pres of Staten Island ALU local: “same obligation with bargaining units, over 20 of them across 10 states.” (referring to union cards rep 30% of the workforce demanding a union at 20 facilities” but Spence claims they signed a majority of their co-workers on union card “ “ Something like this, organized on this scale, has to be internal, has to be worker to worker. They refused to do so. So, in doing so, it was a tacit recognition that those majorities exist, and therefore, that has happened at over 20 bargaining units across the country.” “It has to come from the inside. The idea that this could be done by outsiders is just ridiculous on Amazon’s part. “ TH: the logic here??? Spence again, good quote: “But I think that, ultimately, what we’ve learned, even in the past four years under Biden, is that the NLRB is not the main instrument of change here. It’s building worker power. And we have to do that under any administration, under any NLRB. “ TH: this is also very good: “AMY GOODMAN: And are you calling for people not to use Amazon, to boycott Amazon? CONNOR SPENCE: I think a better thing for me to say is, if you choose to shop on Amazon this holiday, a good thing to do would be to meet with your driver, have a conversation with them when they drop off your package, ask them about their working conditions. If there are things they would want to change, tell them that you’ve seen Amazon workers organizing on TV, that they should consider joining the Teamsters, and they have the full support of you and the community if they choose to do that. Spence (on outsider issue, same Democ. Now): “Amazon is trying to make that this is somehow just an outsider action. You can go to any one of these picket lines where the workers have walked off the job, and see that’s not the case. Last time I was on the show, I talked about how Amazon has 150% turnover in their warehouses nationwide. Something like this, organized on this scale, has to be internal, has to be worker to worker. It has to come from the inside. The idea that this could be done by outsiders is just ridiculous on Amazon’s part. It’s really a narrative I think they want to push so that other workers who are not yet organizing don’t see this and become inspired that they can also fight to change their conditions.” (TH: how does this prove anything?)
Again: Spence (on new tactics of Amazon: “So, in 2022, we were the first warehouse to win an actual NLRB election. Since then, many other warehouses across the country have gone through the NLRB process, not quite the same way we did. Instead, they signed a majority of their co-workers on union cards, demonstrated that majority to the company. The company, under a newer NLRB ruling, had about two weeks to contest that majority, file elections with the NLRB. They refused to do so. So, in doing so, it was a tacit recognition that those majorities exist, and therefore, that has happened at over 20 bargaining units across the country. And that number continues to grow as the movement expands and we organize more workers. “

Bernie Sanders' report on Amazon's dangers and worker org: https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/d ... gation.pdf The “Injury-Productivity Trade-off”: How Amazon’s Obsession with Speed Creates Uniquely Dangerous Warehouses

wiki https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+ ... e&ie=UTF-8 a Rolling Stone video filmed during the strike at Staten Island also at a facility in Queens. At the former location the picketing activists kmanage to lead a short march and oicket of maybe a hundred workers coming out from the job, shouting slogans, but it is unclear if they are going to go on strike. At Queens, they have a simlilar-sized contingent, but it is also unclear if those are strikers or outside activists, such as Teamsters come to support the strike. The police arrest an Amazon driver in uniform and he is defiant.

Google, https://www.google.com/search AI Overview ?

NPR, https://www.npr.org/2024/12/21/nx-s1-52 ... -on-strike, Amazon workers have gone on strike, December 21, 2024 “Some Amazon drivers held small protests this week to highlight conditions they say need to be improved and urged other drivers to join the teamsters union. “

30% If a majority of workers wants to form a union, they can select a union in one of two ways: If at least 30% of workers sign cards or a petition saying they want a union, the NLRB will conduct an election. Per Google

Some Observations about the Christmas Amazon Strike

There are widely different views on the left about the recent Amazon strike. The analysis one gives about this strike or set of strikes tells a lot about the stance of people and groups towards the workers' movement, how its present condition is regarded and what role one sees for the labor bureaucracy.

To begin with, whether these were strikes at all is at issue. It would seem that this would not be in question, but it is.

Of course, Amazon itself claims there were no strikes over Christmas this year at all. In its view, nearly everybody involved in the protest actions at the nine Amazon facilities alleged to have been struck, as well as at the larger number of facilities where labor activists mounted support pickets but did not claim to strike – these were all, in Amazon's view, “outsiders,” people who do not work at Amazon. According to Amazon, there were simply no strikes. Why there was such a great commotion in the mass media and at the job sites over what was allegedly merely a set of protesters at the main locations, this was never explained by Amazon. Much ado about nothing, was their line.

On the left (vaguely defined to include the Teamsters Union), opinions varied widely.

The Teamsters Union, Democracy Now (the latter of the reformist left), other left groups and much of the capitalist mass media hailed a glorious strike of “thousands” of workers. In their view this was the greatest strike ever at Amazon, which is a low bar to exceed, since there had only been a few tiny attempts to strike before now in Amzazon's short history. A likely consequence of such a vew of big success would be to simply do this over and over every year and surely it will expand until all or most of Amazon is shut down. But this view is based on a lie. The lie is that a significantly large number of Amazon workers went on strike this Christmas, enough to allow the workers to just rely on the same methods to solve everything. The fact is that at none of the nine strike targets was there a clear-cut, fairly large number of actual Amazon workers on strike.

No analyst has pointed to an Amazon facility which even came close to being closed by these efforts, or where even a majority of the package flow was definitely stopped for any significant length of time. In the narrow, traditional meaning of the word strike, these were only attempts to do it. Possibly hundreds of Amazon workers may have gone into motion during those days, but only a very small part of those were striking. Bringing these numbers of Amazon workers into protest motion, which seems to have happened, may by itself be an important step forward, but the problem of getting Amazon workers themselves to go out on actual strike in significant numbers has not been solved.

Let's look at some of the particulars.

The Teamsters threw a pretty large number of members, retirees and low-level officials onto the picket lines at both striking and non-striking facilities. It was not easy to tell, among photos and videos of the gatherings, who were Teamster back-ups and who were actual Amazon workers, who was actually on strike and who was just there out of solidarity or ordered to be there by the Teamster officialdom. No evidence of multiples of “thousands” of striking Amazon workers was recorded photographically, even if one totals all nine Amazon worksites where strikes were actually called. This is not to denounce any Teamster workers who came out in support; we are only trying to define the number of actual strikers. “Thousands” of strikers became the rhetoric of much of the left and mass media, with negative consequences for future plans.

We have to look at some more serious observers from the left. One was Joe Allen, a longtime labor activist writing in Truthout, who put the term strike into quotation marks when writing about these events and stated that the number of workers from Amazon actually on strike was so small that the actions were “publicity strikes” (which some call “spectacle strikes”). Not strikes at all, as they shut down almost none of the over-all package-processing that Amazon was doing at the nine facilities. Allen recognized that the small number of strikers did do some damage to the package flow, but Allen saw it as so small and temporary as not to consider these even to be called strikes.

Another left publication, In These Time, saw that the number of real strikers was indeed small, but said that the amount of package-flow that Amazon workers were able to cut off or disrupt in the processing of the strike-claimed plants was significant enough that these events should be called strikes.

Why did In These Times see these actions as strikes?

For one thing, even though the processing of packages was only partially disrupted, it definitely happened. At the airhub at San Bernardino the striking Amazon workers were able to slow the outflow of packages down to 50-60% of the usual rate for an unknown (to the public) period of time. Other sites told In These Times a similar story. In Queens, Amazon workers reported similar impacts of striking. Both Joe Allen and In These Times state that Amazon is able to re-route package flow to avoid bottlenecks caused by striker.. But the striking workers themselves could see the actual cut in processing that they were causing; they knew it was real and word spread widely about it. Did this have any effect on Amazon's profits? It would not seem so, given Amazon's great size. But production and distribution in today's industry are watched at a micro-level, and small cuts are felt quite strongly. Amazon's shareholders and owner, the mega-capitalist Jeff Bezos, daily put tremendous pressure on the workers not to take a few moments longer on breaks, not to leave their work areas to go to the bathroom, etc. If the Amazon profit margins were so secure that they could easily bear a 40-50% cut due to a strike, then why are they so sensitive to what look like only tiny delays? Because, to them, these losses are not tiny, they are serious. Hence, call them what you please, these actions did hurt and threaten Amazon management.

There is another factor. These strikes and the support protests (whose size was unprecedented at Amazon) have been reported by many to have given the workers a feeling of power, of strength as a workforce. If the strikes had been entirely ineffective, this sentiment would not have been very powerful or long-lasting, but workers report the opposite; they report an upsurge in interest and confidence in striking and organizing.

In addition, there is the matter of growth. Some of the strikers and some of the non-strikers at the big workforces at the nine facilities had struck or seen protests and strike attempts last year. This year's campaign represented a big growth, a big expansion of struggle over last year, though still very small.. This, too, has given the workers a psychological and tactical boost.

So where does this lead? Should the leaderships just keep calling these small strikes, hoping they grow? It does seem to have become an annual ritual. And it should be repeated, because ceasing may seem like surrender, but in order for the campaign not to get stale there should be other tactics to use year-round.

The local president of the Amazon Labor Union at Staten Island, Conor Spence, says (Democracy Now) that the Amazon unionization movement now has more than 20 other worksites where over 30% (he says more than 50%) of each workforce has submitted union cards, and these workforces are now ready to hold elections to decide for or against unionization. With this amount of card signatures labor law requires unionization elections. Amazon is illegally refusing to call such elections. This means that, while the movement cannot truly boast of “thousands” of strikers, it does have thousands of submitted union cards and thus thousands of supporters in that sense of the word. This is real support, to a certain level. It will not guarantee that the union will be voted in, if and when such elections happen, but it indicates a measure of real support.

What to do next? Some might say, just push for the elections. That is necessary and it is a weak point for Amazon, but one that may soon be eliminated when Trump re-organizes the NLRB to block the limited support it has given to unionization in the last few years. Public campaigns demanding elections at these facilities might get some. This is something that Amazon workers and Teamsters members could do together, if the Teamster officialdom deigns to call for it.

But this workforce has many young people who are responsive to the left and who think of their movement as essentially a strike movement. They get excited about actual struggle on the shop floor. Tactics must be fond for these activists to use, to actively attack management while supporting and spreading the demand for elections. The workforces can get creative with on-the-job actions; such things as mass work-to-rule can raise spirits and expose and hinder management, while avoiding getting fired.

So it seems that, despite the small number of strikers, this Christmas campaign has advanced the cause of Amazon workers and raises some possible directions to take in the future.

The campaign also exposes problems that will arise with the Teamster labor bureaucracy.

One is, who decides and plans further actions? The Teamsters have created an organizational division of the union for Amazon workers. The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) at Staten Island is apparently the only union member of it. Up until the ALU joined the Teamsters, it alone made all the decisions about strategy and tactics at Amazon. Now this is different. It is unclear how the structure works and how decisions get made about how, for example, to press for elections required under labor law. It is also likely that the Teamster apparatus will oppose most job actions. And when the Amazon workers build the strength to wage effective strikes, how will such decisions be made? It is inevitable that the younger Amazon workers will want to go beyond, or around, what the Teamsters bureaucracy will allow. The bureaucracy presently is served by promoting the lie that thousands of Amazon workers went on strike. That is easy to say when very few actually did so. But in the hoped-for future, when actual thousands are ready and willing to do strike, who will make the decisions then? The Teamster bureaucrats will not be enthusiastic for strikes. Or if locals make such plans, who will communicate those plans to other local areas of Amazon workers? When struggle reaches any kind of higher level, such problems will become very serious. Liaison will be needed. Organization independent of the Teamster bureaucracy will be needed.

This raises the question of organizational form. The Teamsters will enforce top-down control by their bureaucracy. The Amazon workers will need some form of freedom from such control, as that control will inevitably go against their desires. Amazon worker activists should consider forms of communication and organization horizontally among their various worksites, some of which are not under the control of the Teamster bureaucrats, just as a start to self-organization. At one such site, in Garner, North Carolina, where the CAUSE organization has submitted sufficient union cards to require an election, CAUSE has said it wants to remain independent of major unions.

It may seem to some that the Teamsters themselves will provide responsive leadership, but the past history of labor bureaucracy suggests the contrary.

https://tempestmag.org/2025/01/report-o ... california

This article from Tempest is a report from two people who visited Amazon picket lines in California during the December strike. Its value is that it's a live report, so to speak, by two people who were actually there, on the picket line.

this is very interesting.

one thing is that it makes no attempt to clarify what part of the picket line in each case is actual strikers; it seems to assume that they all are, which is probably a good indication of high participation by amazon workers. and probably indicates that these pickets were largely amazon workers. the accounts depict attempts of the picket lines to influence non-striking drivers. these sound like good efforts on the part of strikers and pro-strikers to draw out non-strikers and like a rather thorough and planned effort to do so. this is work to spread a strike, but a real strike indeed, struggling to expand from a small to a larger scale. here we are given a picture of considerable participation by amazon workers and, in this case, help from some teamsters that seems pretty good.

the exposure of the lack of efforts by the teamsters to draw in workers from other employers is important, especially when the few details given about when that is attempted show considerable enthusiasm for struggle on the part of "outside" workers. i think the possibility of strikes spreading to other employers is going to grew rapidly as the reality of trumpism sinks in. the younger workers have not been schooled in taft-hartley obedience to isolation of workforces.

Some suggestions about "Some Observations about the Christmas Amazon Strike". It's an interesting article. I just have two small points:

It's best not to say " the left (vaguely defined to include the Teamsters Union)". The draft later refers to the "Teamster union bureaucracy". And the idea is that the workers should seek to act despite its control, and hence also the idea is the left should oppose it. This gets a bit confusing if the Teamster union bureaucracy is also called the left, however vaguely. And it's not necessary to call it the left.

I don't think the half-paragraph on whether the strike had an effect on Amazon's profits is quite right. Now, there are many people in management, responsible for this or that part of Amazon, and so some of them may well be affected by even a slight change in profits in their sector. But overall, as far as the issue of winning demands and unionizing Amazon, one would expect Amazon management to be willing to put up with, not just cuts in its profits, but even a period of major losses if they thought they could keep the union out. Indeed, we've just seen what type of losses Boeing management was willing to take. Given the modest size of the Amazon strike, I don't think this hurt and threaten Amazon. So I would drop that half-paragraph.

(revised)

Some Observations about the Christmas Amazon Strike

There are widely different views in the capitalist mass media and among big capitalists like Amazon, among the labor bureaucrats and on the left about the recent Amazon strike. The analysis one gives about this strike or set of strikes tells a lot about the stance of people and groups towards the workers' movement, how its present condition is regarded and what role one sees for the labor bureaucracy.

To begin with, whether these were strikes at all is at issue. It would seem that this would not be in question, but it is.

Of course, Amazon itself claims there were no strikes over Christmas this year at all. In its view, nearly everybody involved in the protest actions at the nine Amazon facilities alleged to have been struck, as well as at the larger number of facilities where labor activists mounted support pickets but did not claim to strike – these were all, in Amazon's view, “outsiders,” people who do not work at Amazon. According to Amazon, there were simply no strikes. Why there was such a great commotion in the mass media and at the job sites over what was allegedly merely a set of protesters at the main locations, this was never explained by Amazon. Much ado about nothing, was their line.

Among others opinions varied widely.

The Teamsters Union itself, Democracy Now (the latter of the reformist left), other left groups and much of the capitalist mass media hailed a glorious strike of “thousands” of workers. In the view of all these, this was the greatest strike ever at Amazon, which is a low bar to exceed, since there had only been a few tiny attempts to strike before now in Amazon's short history. (1,2) A likely consequence of such a view of big success would, for strikers and their friends, be to simply do this over and over every year and surely it will expand until all or most of Amazon is shut down. But this view is based on a lie. The lie is that a significantly large number of Amazon workers went on strike this Christmas, enough to allow the workers to just rely on the same methods to solve everything. The fact is that at none of the nine strike targets was there a clear-cut, fairly large number of actual Amazon workers on strike.

No analyst has pointed to an Amazon facility which even came close to being closed by these efforts, or where even a majority of the package flow was definitely stopped for any significant length of time. In the narrow, traditional meaning of the word strike, these were only attempts to do it. Possibly hundreds of Amazon workers may have gone into motion during those days, but only a very small part of those were striking. Bringing these numbers of Amazon workers into protest motion, which seems to have happened, may by itself be an important step forward, but the problem of getting Amazon workers themselves to go out on actual strike in significant numbers has not been solved.

Let's look at some of the particulars.

The Teamsters threw a pretty large number of members, retirees and low-level officials onto the picket lines at both striking and non-striking facilities. It was not easy to tell, among photos and videos of the gatherings, who were Teamster back-ups and who were actual Amazon workers, who was actually on strike and who was just there out of solidarity or to watch or ordered to be there by the Teamster officialdom. No evidence of multiples of “thousands” of striking Amazon workers was recorded photographically, even if one totals all nine Amazon worksites where strikes were actually called. This is not to denounce any Teamster workers who came out in support or nearby

Amazon workers who wanted to see a strike; those numbers actually helped the movement; but we are trying here to define the number of actual strikers. “Thousands” of strikers became the rhetoric of much of the left and the mass media, with negative consequences for future plans.

We have to look at some more serious observers from the left. One was Joe Allen, a longtime labor activist writing in Truthout, who put the term strike into quotation marks when writing about these events and stated that the number of workers from Amazon actually on strike was so small that the actions were “publicity strikes” (which some call “spectacle strikes”). Not strikes at all, as they shut down almost none of the over-all package-processing that Amazon was doing at the nine facilities. Allen recognized that the small number of strikers did do some damage to the package flow, but Allen saw it as so small and temporary as not to consider these even to be called strikes.(3)

Another left publication, In These Time, saw that the number of real strikers was indeed small, but said that the amount of package-flow that Amazon workers were able to cut off or disrupt in the processing of the strike-claimed plants was significant enough that these events should be called strikes.

Why did In These Times see these actions as strikes?

For one thing, even though the processing of packages was only partially disrupted, it definitely happened. At the airhub at San Bernardino the striking Amazon workers were able to slow the outflow of packages down to 50-60% of the usual rate for an unknown (to the public) period of time. Other sites told In These Times a similar story. In Queens, Amazon workers reported similar impacts of striking. Both Joe Allen and In These Times state that Amazon is able to re-route package flow to avoid bottlenecks caused by striker.. But the striking workers themselves could see the actual cut in processing that they were causing; they knew it was real and word spread widely about it. Did this have any effect on Amazon's profits? It would not seem so, given Amazon's great size. But production and distribution in today's industry are watched at a micro-level, and small cuts are viewed as dangerous harbingers of a dreaded future in which worker masses will be able to carry out significant strikes and do significant damage to profit totals.

There is another factor. These strikes and the support protests (whose size was unprecedented at Amazon) have been reported by many to have given the workers a feeling of power, of strength as a workforce. If the strikes had been entirely ineffective, this sentiment would not have been very powerful or long-lasting, but workers report the opposite; they report an upsurge in interest and confidence in striking and organizing.(4)

In addition, there is the matter of growth. Some of the strikers and some of the non-strikers at the big workforces at the nine facilities had struck or seen protests and strike attempts last year. This year's campaign represented a big growth, a big expansion of struggle over last year, though still very small.. This, too, has given the workers a psychological and tactical boost.(3)

Tempest., another left journal, gives a brief but convincing picture of enough worker mobilization as to create a sort of an embryo of worker power. It shows actual striking workers vigorously endeavoring to get other Amazon workers, drivers, to slow down or to strike, with the help of some Teamsters who seem to be worker-fighters rather than tame bureaucrats. The Tempest article also raises an important point: it relates that there was great interest in the Amazon strike attempts by workers from other industries altogether. This is important, as the present generation of young workers have not been brought up with the poisonous doctrine enshrined in the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, that one must never spread a strike from one employer to another.(5)

So where does this lead? Should the Amazon workers' leaderships just keep calling these small strikes, hoping they grow? It does seem to have become an annual ritual. And it should be repeated, because ceasing may seem like surrender, but in order for the campaign not to get stale there should be other tactics to use year-round.

The local president of the Amazon Labor Union at Staten Island, Conor Spence, says (Democracy Now) that the Amazon unionization movement now has more than 20 other worksites where over 30% (he says more than 50%) of each workforce has submitted union cards, and these workforces are now ready to hold elections to decide for or against unionization. With this amount of card signatures labor law requires unionization elections. Amazon is illegally refusing to call such elections. This means that, while the movement cannot truly boast of “thousands” of strikers, it does have thousands of submitted union cards and thus thousands of supporters in that sense of the word. This is real support, to a certain level. It will not guarantee that the union will be voted in, if and when such elections happen, but it indicates a measure of real support.

What to do next? Some might say, just push for the elections. That is certainly necessary and it is a weak point for Amazon, but one that may soon be eliminated when Trump (as he plans to do) re-organizes the NLRB to block the limited support it has given to unionization in the last few years. Public campaigns demanding elections at these facilities might have some success. This is something that Amazon workers and Teamsters members could do together, if the Teamster officialdom deigns to call for it.

But this workforce has many young people who are responsive to the left and who think of their movement as essentially a strike movement. They get excited about actual struggle on the shop floor. Tactics must be found for these activists to use, to actively attack management while supporting and spreading the demand for elections. The workforces can get creative with on-the-job actions; such things as mass work-to-rule nd even small agit-prop theater techniques can raise spirits and expose and hinder management, while avoiding getting fired.

So it seems that, despite the small number of strikers, this Christmas campaign has advanced the cause of Amazon workers and raises some possible directions to take in the future.

The campaign also exposes problems that will arise with the Teamster labor bureaucracy.

One is, who decides and plans further actions? The Teamsters have created an organizational division within the union for Amazon workers. The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) at Staten Island is apparently the only union member of it. Up until the ALU joined the Teamsters, it alone made all the decisions about strategy and tactics at Amazon. Now this is different. It is unclear how the structure works and how decisions get made about how, for example, to press for elections required under labor law. It is also likely that the Teamster apparatus will oppose most job actions. And when the Amazon workers build the strength to wage effective strikes, how will such decisions be made? It is inevitable that the younger Amazon workers will want to go beyond, or around, what the Teamsters bureaucracy will allow. The bureaucracy presently is served by promoting the lie that thousands of Amazon workers went on strike. That is easy to say when very few actually did so. But in the hoped-for future, when actual thousands are ready and willing to strike, who will make the decisions then? The Teamster bureaucrats will not be enthusiastic for strikes. Or if locals make such plans, who will communicate those plans to other local areas of Amazon workers? When struggle reaches any kind of higher level, such problems will become very serious. Liaison will be needed. Organization independent of the Teamster bureaucracy will be needed.

This raises the question of organizational form. The Teamsters will enforce top-down control by their bureaucracy. The Amazon workers will need some form of freedom from such control, as that control will inevitably go against their desires. Amazon worker activists should consider forms of communication and organization horizontally among their various worksites, some of which are not under the control of the Teamster bureaucrats, just as a start to self-organization. At one such site, in Garner, North Carolina, where the CAUSE organization has submitted sufficient union cards to require an election, CAUSE has said it wants to remain independent of major unions.

It may seem to some that the Teamsters themselves will provide responsive leadership, but the past history of labor bureaucracy suggests the contrary.

FOOTNOTES

1) Teamster Press Release, Amazon Teamsters at JFK8 Join Historic Strike, https://teamster.org/2024/12/amazon-tea ... ic-strike/, “

2) Democracy Now, Thousands of Amazon workers strike! https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/19 ... ecognition, “.. Also: Amazon Workers Launch Historic Strike to Demand New Contracts & End Unsafe Labor Practices, Dec. 20, 2024, https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/20/amazon_strike

3) Truthout, The Teamsters’ “strikes” at Amazon: A critical assessment by Joe Allen, https://joeallen-60224.medium.com/the-t ... 08a9022b5a,

4) In these times, Amazon Strike Takeaways: Walk-Outs Slowed Packages, Boosted Union Power, https://inthesetimes.com/article/amazon ... use-unions?

5) Tempest, Report on the Amazon Teamsters’ strike in Southern California, https://tempestmag.org/2025/01/report-o ... alifornia/

Hello Tim,

Here is an article that I just read in the Freedom Socialist newspaper about the Amazon strike, thought you might find it interesting: https://socialism.com/fs-article/meet-o ... on-amazon/

i posted this on fb today:

do you remember those 8 amazon facilities that attempted to strike over christmas? they all had submitted union cards signed by more than 30% of the workforce demanding an election to certify a union, as had already happened at staten island. amazon has refused to obey the labor law that requires them, at this point, to call such a vote and recognize a union if it wins over 50%, as had alredy happened at staten island.

such potential elections would only have happened if the democratic members of the national labor relations board had remained in office, as the nlrb had forced through one such an election. well, the article below reports that trump has fired NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. abruzzo had been been in that office of the nlrb then the election at staten island was gained.

so trump's union-busting is here in plain view! this does not bode well for the efforts of the amazon workers at those 8 or so facilities where the cards have been handed in and the workers must fight for a union vote.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump- ... xNnOVfRQxA

here is a not bad explanation of amazon' pullout of quebec. it is a full pullout; all its facilities will close and it will deliver through third parties. apparently quebec has a stronger labor law than the us; once a workplace votes for a union the management must negotiate a contract or face arbitration.

https://breachmedia.ca/amazon-quitting- ... worldwide/

the laval local there was the close to establishing an actual union.this move, plus trump's firing of abruzzo and another nlrb official, show the utter brutality of the capitlalist establishment against the amazon workers.

Amazon union election in N. Carolina

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/no ... -election/

NLRB-supervised union election will be held at an Amazon facility in North Carolina Feb. 10-15.