Eric Fretz
The picket line at the huge Maspeth, (Queens, NYC) Amazon fulfillment center was almost 100 people, and people kept it up in shifts.
There was a fair amount of Amazon workers (it seemed mostly drivers), but also lots of Teamsters members and staff supporting, and a fair amount of outside solidarity, including a couple visible DC37 members.
The picket line was right in front of the Amazon site, I was told the strategy was they let a certain number of Amazon vans to let out every five minutes, not trying to stop movement (which would invite police intervention), but delaying it.
One of two main Teamsters signs carried on the march said “Obey the Law.” That was aimed at Amazon not negotiating with the union, but still, on a picket line I chose to carry the “ULP Strike” sign instead.
One rank and file driver on the picket line said if they really wanted to close it down, they would block the big trucks coming in, not the many vans coming out, but that would take greater strength. He had two years on the job, and said he now has major back problems.
Chilling
Another driver on the picket line, with only three months on the job, told me lots of chilling details of how Amazon relies on competition between the different DSP’s (sub-contracted Delivery Service Providers) for handing down pressure to drivers, setting impossible goals, and secretly breaking safety agreements.
DSPs get paid per package delivered, and worry about not getting their contract renewed if another does better. Amazon specifies pay, conditions and targets, including two 15-minute breaks, but the need to make targets means no one takes the breaks. Many even work during their unpaid lunch hour. One driver did 11 hour days.
Another said he has less than five days’ work a week, and he could pick up extra hours when they needed him, but he could have his days cut if he delivered less than other drivers.
His DSP has several managers and their boss. Some play ‘bad cop’ and humiliate the last driver back.
Each van has to be inspected after a shift, but workers are given 90 seconds to do so. If a problem with the van means it would be taken out of service for repairs, DSP management says “don’t report it to Amazon, we will deal with it”. When a window was broken he was told to roll it down before inspection so it would not be noticed.
He was upset not just for the pressure and effect on his health, but because the system is bad for customers, with packages left in the rain, official delivery notifications fudged, etc. for speed. He said people know this is not right, but get pressured into accepting it. “It changes you from the inside out.”
Six of the about 30 drivers in his DSP came out for the strike. They all complained about the conditions, but many were afraid they could be fired or have their hours cut.
Amazon workers who walked out and spent six hours on the picket line were given strike pay by the large Teamsters union. Even though they did not have a recognized union at this facility, they were legally protected against retaliation by US law on “concerted activity” around certain workplace issues, in this case a coordinated and announced protest against unfair bargaining on the part of Amazon.
El piquete de Amazon, Queens. Foto: Eric Fretz, Marx21 US
Trump
Amazon is banking on more anti-labor rulings in the Trump administration, both filing with the NLRB against the vote in Staten Island, and going to Federal Court to say the NLRB is unconstitutional, a suit which could end in the right-wing Supreme Court and fundamentally shake up US labor law.
On the other hand, Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post and has been often criticized by Trump.
Teamster president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican Convention, and the Teamsters was one of the unions that did not endorse Kamala Harris. In the election, Trump capitalized on the Democrats avoiding class politics and the effects of inflation under Biden to pose as friend of overlooked (white) working people. (Of course, Trump made the argument of American workers and American small business vs immigrants and Chinese trade, rather than workers vs bosses). Some thought O’Brien was using all this to get Trump to side with him, or at least not move against this particular union drive.
But seeing the problems of Trump turning against Amazon, Bezos intervened in the Washington Post’s editorial process to stop them from publishing an endorsement of Harris. After the election Bezos said he was “very optimistic” about a second Trump administration. And he has now had dinner with Trump and Elon Musk, and directed Amazon to donate one million dollars to Trump’s upcoming inauguration.
Union bosses who think they have befriended Trump may be unpleasantly surprised. Other pro-Trump business people, like the owners of Wall Mart, who would want to see Amazon hurt because of the competition, will nonetheless side with Amazon against unions because of the public precedent it could set.
Eric Fretz is a member of Marx21 US, our sister group in the United States.
The header photo is by Ramy Mahmoud/QNS.
