Union workers in Missoula picket Amazon in solidarity with teamsters
Keila Szpaller
(Daily Montanan) Union members in Missoula picketed Thursday at the Amazon warehouse in solidarity with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters striking across the country.
The union members, among 10,000 workers nationwide, are fighting for higher wages, better benefits and safer conditions, according to a news release from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The picketers in Missoula were members of the Teamsters from Missoula and elsewhere in Montana.
A union spokesperson said the workers at the Amazon warehouse and its drivers who work for third parties have yet to sign union cards, but discussions are underway given their working conditions.
“They don’t even have time for bathroom breaks,” said Erin Foley, with Teamsters Union Local No. 2.
In a statement, however, an Amazon spokesperson said the people who are picketing are “almost entirely outsiders,” and the actual workers will continue to focus on getting customers their holiday orders.
“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,’” said Kelly Nantel, of Amazon, in a statement from the company. “They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative.”
A news release from the union said the strike was the largest one against Amazon in U.S. history, and workers were joining the picket line in New York, Georgia, California, and Illinois.
Union spokesperson Derek Hitt of Missoula declined to disclose the number of Amazon workers and drivers who are considering signing union cards. He said they fear retaliation.
Foley said workers at other facilities have faced serious consequences in attempting to unionize.
“People have been fired,” Foley said.
In an email, Amazon said its employees are free to join a union, but it also said it has already offered competitive pay, health benefits “on day one,” and opportunities for career growth.
“We look forward to working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work,” Amazon said in a statement.
The warehouse in Missoula held a ribbon cutting in March 2024.
At the time, an Amazon spokesperson told the Daily Montanan that roughly 100 Amazon associates work at the warehouse, and approximately 80 drivers work for an independent delivery company.
The spokesperson said wages for Amazon workers started at $17 an hour and went as high as $19.40. The Missoulian said delivery drivers earned $21 to $24 an hour.
Amazon said Thursday it has increased average base wages to $22 an hour nationally, or $29 including benefits.
Thursday, Foley said the wages workers in Missoula earn pale in comparison to the pay earned by drivers for UPS and Mountain Line, the local bus company.
She also said drivers use their own vehicles, and the mileage reimbursement is inadequate for the wear and tear.
Even though delivery drivers across the country work for third parties, the Teamsters have argued Amazon controls the purse strings and working conditions.
Thursday morning, fewer than a dozen people picketed in Missoula, but Hitt said the movement will grow.
“It always starts with a few,” he said.
In a statement, a national spokesperson said Amazon’s executives can do more for workers.
“These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit, and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them,” said Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien in a statement.
In Missoula, union member Ray Schonsberg picketed outside the warehouse wearing a button that read, “In solidarity with Amazon Teamsters.”
“Amazon is refusing to meet us at the table to even talk,” said Schonsberg, president of the Teamsters Local No. 2.
The strike Thursday started during one of the busiest times of the year for deliveries nationally. An estimated 10,000 packages a day are delivered out of the Missoula warehouse during “peak holiday season,” according to an earlier estimate from Amazon.
The union workers on the picket line in Missoula work for other companies, and Amazon said Thursday it hasn’t seen its operations affected by the national strike.
Amazon announced it was building the $8.1 million facility in Missoula in December 2022.
The company said the 72,000-square-foot delivery station, part of the “last mile” stage of shipping, would receive orders from larger Amazon facilities across the U.S. and dispatch delivery vans to bring those orders to customers’ front doors.
Unsafe working conditions, including injuries in warehouses, are among the concerns of the union workers nationally.
Amazon, however, said it recently announced an “incremental investment” of more than $2.1 billion in its Delivery Service Partners including for safety and incentives. The “partners” employ the drivers.
Amazon said it anticipates driver pay through those third parties will increase to $22 an hour on average in the U.S. as a result, although many drivers are paid “well above that” amount.