Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
Before yesterdayMain stream

Five more Amazon facilities authorize worker strikes

18 December 2024 at 10:50

Teamsters unions at five additional Amazon facilities have voted to go on strikes, following similar action in New York City and Illinois. The international Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) announced in a statement that union members “unanimously” approved measures to authorize strikes in four Southern California facilities and a fifth facility in Atlanta.

The four Southern California facilities are based in City of Industry, Palmdale, Victorville and San Bernardino, according to SiliconValley.com. This brings the total number of Amazon facilities that have authorized worker strikes to eight. The total includes a facility in Skokie, Illinois and two New York City warehouses on Staten Island and in Queens. The IBT represents just under 10,000 workers in 10 Amazon facilities nationwide.

These facilities approved a strike right in the middle of the holiday shopping season, one of the busiest and most lucrative times of the year for the online retail giant. Amazon crews went on strike to protest against low wages, hazardous working conditions and “Amazon’s illegal refusal to recognize their union,” according to IBT statements.

Teamsters General President Sean N. O’Brien said in the statement that Amazon has failed to provide adequate compensation and protections for its workforce. If their demands are ignored, O’Brien says they will start strikes.

“Amazon workers want to earn a good living, have decent health care and be safe on the job,” O’Brien said. “They are done with the disrespect and if Amazon keeps pushing them, they will push them to strike.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/five-more-amazon-facilities-authorize-worker-strikes-185030459.html?src=rss

©

© Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo via Getty Images

ORLANDO, FLORIDA DECEMBER 2: Amazon employees work to fulfill same-day orders during Cyber Monday, one of the company busiest days of the year. The fulfillment center, one of Amazon largest for same-day deliveries, saw more than 200 workers sorting, packing and shipping items throughout Central Florida. On any given day, this location processes more than 20,000 packages, but during the holiday season, that number jumps to more than 80,000. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images)

Amazon workers at two NYC warehouses are set to go on strike

By: Kris Holt
17 December 2024 at 09:52

Workers at two of Amazon's warehouses in New York City are set to go on strike after the company failed to come to the bargaining table by a December 15 deadline. Unionized workers at the JFK8 facility on Staten Island and DBK4 depot in Queens voted "overwhelmingly" to authorize strikes in protest against "Amazon’s illegal refusal to recognize their union and negotiate a contract addressing the company’s low wages and dangerous working conditions," according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Engadget has contacted the Teamsters and Amazon Labor Union (ALU) for more details about the strikes.

The workers at JFK8 were the first in the US to unionize at an Amazon warehouse. They organized under the ALU, which this June partnered with the Teamsters. The union now known as ALU-IBT Local 1 represents around 5,500 warehouse workers at JFK8.

“Our members are ready to do whatever it takes to get a contract,” Connor Spence, president of ALU-IBT Local 1, said in a statement. “While Amazon continues to disrespect us by refusing to listen to our concerns, our movement is only growing stronger.”

As for DBK4 — which the Teamsters say is Amazon's biggest delivery station in NYC — workers there voted almost unanimously for strike authorization. Meanwhile, workers at the DIL7 delivery depot in Skokie, Illinois, also voted "overwhelmingly" to approve a strike. The Teamsters represent hundreds of workers at that station as well. “Amazon is one of the biggest companies on Earth, but we are struggling to pay our bills,” Riley Holzworth, a DIL7 worker, said in a statement.

Amazon has lodged legal challenges against the union election win at JFK8, but it has been unsuccessful in its efforts to overturn results thus far. The company has appealed a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that certified the union. As ABC News reports, workers claim that Amazon is using the challenges as a tactic to illegally delay union contract talks.

"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 Eileen Hards told ABC News. "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."

News of the impending strike comes just after a Senate committee released a report regarding an investigation into safety at Amazon facilities. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions claimed the company ignored internal research indicating that there was a high level of injury rates at its warehouses.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-workers-at-two-nyc-warehouses-are-set-to-go-on-strike-175236558.html?src=rss

©

© REUTERS / Reuters

Workers arrive to cast ballots for a union election at Amazon's JFK8 distribution center, in the Staten Island borough of New York City, U.S., March 25, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid.

ZeniMax Online Studios workers form their own union

13 December 2024 at 11:00

Staff at another video game studio have organized their own union. The Communication Workers of America (CWA) announced late Thursday in a statement that 461 workers for ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS), the Maryland-based studio behind The Elder Scrolls Online, voted to form the ZOS United-CWA union covering web developers, designers, engineers and graphics artists by a vote of 395-40. 

The new union will allow ZeniMax staffers to “collectively push for real improvements” in the workplace and provide “job security amid record layoffs, protections against AI, better pay and benefits,” according to a statement released by the CWA.

“I’m excited to finally see workers have a say in the workplace,” encounter designer and ZOS United-CWA member Billy Eichner said in the statement. “We already work together to make great games. Why not work together to make a great workplace?”

This isn’t the first time that a group of ZeniMax workers have formed a union. Quality assurance testers at ZeniMax unionized in January of 2023, making it the largest union in the game industry at the time.

Workers at other major game studios have followed the lead of QA workers at ZeniMax by forming their own unions. Sega of America workers unionized last March. More than 500 staffers who work on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft voted to form their union over the summer. Workers at Bethesda Game Studios, the developer behind Starfield, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, also voted to create a union in July.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/zenimax-online-studios-workers-form-their-own-union-190055555.html?src=rss

©

© ZeniMax Media

Workers at ZeniMax Online Studios, the developer behind The Elder Scrolls Online, formed a new union with The Communication Workers of America (CWA) on Thursday.

Amazon workers across the globe are on strike for Black Friday

29 November 2024 at 09:47

Amazon workers across the world have gone on strike for Black Friday, according to the labor advocacy group UNI Global Union. The protests, dubbed “Make Amazon Pay,” are scheduled to last until December 2. Strikes are happening everywhere, from the US to Australia and Nepal.

There are also demonstrations happening in more than 20 countries over “labor abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy.” The demonstrators are petitioning the company, which is worth around $2.2 trillion, for increased wages, better working conditions and the permission to form unions. Amazon doesn’t particularly care for unions.

#MakeAmazonPay sagen diese Woche Gewerkschaftsaktive aus weltweit mehr als 20 Ländern zum #BlackFriday der auf dem Rücken der Arbeiter:innen ausgetragen wird. #Solidarität gibt es dafür auch von den starken @_verdi Vertrauensleuten aus dem Hamburger Hafen der @HHLA_Group 🫱🏻‍🫲🏽🚩 pic.twitter.com/O8MptYXrdh

— ver.di Amazon Niedersachsen-Bremen (@verdiAmazon_NDS) November 29, 2024

This includes thousands of workers in Germany, across several cities, and hundreds in New Delhi. Employees from India’s capital city are protesting after the company allegedly mistreated workers during a massive heat wave earlier this year, in which people reportedly began fainting due to heat stroke. However, Amazon sent a statement after that saying that it complies with Indian law and that there’s “nothing more important than the safety and well being of the workers." 

✊🏿#MakeAmazonPay Day begins! Amazon workers in Jantar Mantar, Delhi 🇮🇳 rally to demand minimum pay, decent working conditions & recognition of Amazon workers union @AiwaInd pic.twitter.com/rBUKd7DV9Z

— UNI Global Union (@uniglobalunion) November 29, 2024

The Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizen's Action will also hold protests in multiple cities across France and garment workers are demonstrating in Bangladesh. The strikes and associated protests could slow down holiday deliveries a bit, according to ABC News. This is, of course, the entire point of a strike.

This is the fifth straight year of Make Amazon Pay actions, which always start on Black Friday. The aim of the movement is to “hold Amazon accountable around the world” by targeting the busiest holiday shopping weekend. To that end, Amazon represented nearly 20 percent of worldwide Black Friday transactions in 2023, with more than $170 billion in holiday sales. 

While billionaire Bezos tours the world on his $500m yacht, Amazon workers in 20+ countries are rising up this Black Friday to demand fair wages, union rights & climate action. Amazon must pay its fair share & respect workers. I stand with #MakeAmazonPay https://t.co/NmX1Sc1F66

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 27, 2024

"Amazon's relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment and democracy," said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. “We stand united in demanding that Amazon treat its workers fairly, respect fundamental rights and stop undermining the systems meant to protect us all.”

Amazon has a different take on things, writing in a statement that the organizers are being “intentionally misleading” and continuing “to promote a false narrative.” The company also crowed that it has “created more than 1.5 million jobs around the world” and that it provides “a modern, safe and engaging workplace.”

Modern and safe? Amazon was responsible for more than half of all serious warehouse injuries in the US in 2022. Let me state that again. Amazon accounted for more than half of these incidents and every other company combined accounted for the remaining 47 percent. This was reported more than a year after the company promised to spend $300 million on improving workplace safety. 

However, Amazon recently announced a major investment, to the tune of $2.2 billion, to increase pay for fulfillment and transportation employees in the US. That’s good news, but is only around one quarter of what the company spent on major investments in the AI company Anthropic.

Amazon has invested a total of $8 billion in Anthropic. https://t.co/k2vM7Ozbc2

— Observer (@observer) November 22, 2024

Make Amazon Pay was originally launched in 2020 by the aforementioned UNI Global Union and Progressive International. The organizations say it has steadily grown each year, with this year's protests drawing support from over 30 unions, environmental organizations and civil society groups.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-workers-across-the-globe-are-on-strike-for-black-friday-174745422.html?src=rss

©

© UNI Global Union

Striking workers.
❌
❌