Amazon delivery drivers go on strike in Queens, nationwide, spare Long Island 

With days to go before Christmas, Teamsters-backed delivery drivers for Amazon have gone on strike at seven distribution facilities across the country, though no facilities on Long Island have joined the labor action, and Amazon says customer deliveries won't be impacted.  

Delivery drivers at Amazon's DBK4 distribution hub in Maspeth, Queens, as well as drivers at six facilities in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Skokie, Illinois, participated in the nationwide strike Thursday, according to the union.

As of early Thursday, no strikes or picket lines had been established at Amazon facilities in Nassau or Suffolk counties, though "other facilities are prepared to join," a Teamsters spokesperson said.  

In addition to the strikes, the union said it will be setting up “primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon fulfillment centers nationwide.”

Drivers at the Maspeth location, 55-15 Grand Ave., went on strike at 6 a.m. along with the other facilities demanding increased wages, better benefits and improved safety conditions on the job, the spokesperson said.

The striking drivers work for Amazon through delivery service partners, specialized independent contractors that work with the e-commerce giant to deliver packages from local delivery stations.

While separate entities, Amazon provides DSP owners with management training, deals on business assets and access to third-party providers of employee benefits.

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a statement released Wednesday night. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”

O'Brien added, "Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them.” 

A major sticking point in the strikes, however, is that Amazon doesn’t recognize the delivery workers as Teamsters members or as direct employees.

“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,' " Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative.”

Tiffany Cabán, a New York City Council member, who joined striking drivers in Maspeth Thursday, said NYPD officers at the strike “blocked the picket line, threw punches at picketers and made violent arrests of protesting workers.”

“I condemn the NYPD’s use of the Strategic Response Group and violence at the Amazon Teamsters picket line where workers were peacefully — and lawfully — striking,” Cabán said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon.

“I condemn both Amazon and the NYPD for denigrating the rights of workers under federal labor law to organize, strike, and collectively bargain in good faith,” she added.

The NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information did not return a call for comment Thursday afternoon.

The Teamsters’ claim that the drivers are members relies on precedent set by a National Labor Relations Board ruling from August 2023. The ruling, a case involving Cemex Construction Materials Pacific LLC, creates a new framework for seeking union recognition.

In essence, when a union requests recognition based on majority support of workers, an employer must recognize its workers’ union status or immediately petition the NLRB to hold an election. If the company is determined to have committed an unfair labor practice, the NLRB can dismiss the request for an election and order a union’s recognition.

“What you see here are almost entirely outsiders — not Amazon employees or partners — and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters,” Nantel said. Nantel added that the company and its employees were “continuing to focus on getting customers their holiday orders.”