Teamsters union members were picketing outside the Chattanooga Amazon distribution center Thursday in support of organizing efforts at some of the company’s facilities nationally.
Mitchell Vann, principal officer for Teamsters Local 1129 in Cartersville, Georgia, said he and four others outside the Chattanooga site were handing out leaflets and talking to Amazon workers.
“If Amazon workers can talk and negotiate for a contract, that will mean an increase in wages, benefits and better working conditions,” he said in an interview.
Vann and the other union members were standing at the roundabout on Volkswagen Drive, holding placards saying “Amazon is Unfair” and “Amazon: Obey the Law.”
An Amazon official at the Enterprise South industrial park center declined comment about the picketing.
(READ MORE: Amazon’s Chattanooga distribution center)
On Thursday, workers at seven Amazon locations organized under the Teamsters union went on strike, saying the company has repeatedly refused to follow the law and to bargain, according to The Associated Press.
The strikes are taking place at seven delivery stations, which are run by contractors who drop off packages to customers every day. They include three locations in Southern California and one each in New York City, Atlanta and Skokie, Illinois, according to a union statement.
“What you see here are almost entirely outsiders, not Amazon employees or partners, and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told The Associated Press. “The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and have brought in outsiders to come and harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous.”
Amazon has said it does not consider delivery drivers like the ones on strike to be its employees. Under the company’s business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called delivery service partners, who deliver millions of packages daily. Amazon has accused the union, which says it represents some of the drivers, of intentionally misleading the public.
Michael Hill, president of Local 1129, said members are “fighting against corporate greed.” Some Amazon employees have said they’re “happy to see us here,” Hill said in an interview.
The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce lists the Amazon distribution center as holding 2,331 full-time jobs and 1,027 part-time workers.
Vann said the group, which plans to return Friday, has received “tremendous” support from people driving by the warehouse.
The road leads to Volkswagen Chattanooga, where in April the United Auto Workers won an organizing vote, giving that union its first breakthrough at a foreign automaker in the South.
(READ MORE: UAW wins at Chattanooga plant)
Results showed 2,628 votes were cast for the union, or 73%, while 985 workers, or 27%, went against the UAW. The company employs about 5,500 people in Chattanooga.
Unionization efforts by the UAW at the plant were voted down by VW workers in 2014 and 2019.
Earlier this month, Volkswagen officials said they made an offer to the union that includes a 14% pay raise over four years, along with profit-sharing and improved health care benefits.
But Yogi Peoples, a UAW-VW bargaining committee member, said while the sides have been talking for months, “VW is still not taking our demands seriously.”
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.