The fight to unionize Amazon workers has come to San Bernardino.
More than 1,000 workers at Amazon’s San Bernardino air hub have formed a union, the Teamsters announced this week.
RELATED: Amazon workers strike over alleged unfair labor practices at San Bernardino air hub
A video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, showed air hub workers holding Teamsters flags and shouting “Who are we? Teamsters!” during an apparent confrontation with management.
“As Amazon prepares to rake in record profits this holiday season, it’s time Amazon workers get our fair share, and that’s exactly why we’re joining the Teamsters,” Maggie Perez, an air hub worker, said in a Teamsters news release.
“Every day we’re on the job, we’re breaking our bodies to get packages out on time and to keep Amazon customers happy,” Perez said. “In return, all we’re asking for is livable wages, fair treatment and respect. For a company worth trillions of dollars, that should be the bare minimum.”
Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards accused the Teamsters of trying to bully air hub workers into unionizing.
“The truth is the Teamsters have 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,” Hards said via email.
“And they continue to disregard the sentiment of the majority of employees and drivers who have been saying they want to come to work, do their jobs, and then get back home to their families without being harassed or coerced by union organizers.”
The only Amazon facility of its kind in California, the 660,000-square-foot air hub, which operates 20 to 22 hours a day at San Bernardino International Airport, processes at least 18,000 shipments an hour and sends them out via airplanes and trucks as part of a sophisticated network aimed at satisfying customers’ online orders as quickly as possible.
According to the Teamsters, Amazon has until Sunday, Dec. 15, to set dates for negotiating a union contract. Hards disputed that.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to mislead our employees, partners and the public — claiming we have an obligation to bargain with them,” Hards said. “We don’t.”
“And because of their track record of misrepresenting the facts, we’re skeptical that their claims here are accurate or that they’ve gathered the required number of legitimate signatures to support their claim.”
Randy Korgan, director of the Teamsters’ Amazon Division, said Amazon does not “seem to respect any set of rules when it comes to what workers’ rights are.”
Korgan noted that Amazon is arguing in court that the National Labor Relations Board’s structure is unconstitutional.
“Clearly, Amazon is ignoring everything and saying ‘We did nothing wrong anywhere, anyhow and everybody else is wrong and everybody else’s iteration of this situation is incorrect,’” he said.
Hards said Amazon believes the labor board “is acting beyond its mandate, including by having its members serving as both prosecutors and judges on the same case.”
“This is a clear violation of separation of powers, and furthermore, they feel emboldened to do so because they are unconstitutionally insulated from removal.”
Efforts to unionize air hub workers officially launched in November. In recent years, workers have complained about being cheated out of overtime pay as they toil in what they call sweltering conditions at breakneck paces that they say make them vulnerable to injury.
Amazon disputes those assertions and insists it prioritizes workers’ safety while offering robust pay and benefits and opportunities for employees to advance their education.
In July, air hub workers walked off the job and picketed outside the facility as part of a one-day strike over alleged unfair labor practices.
According to the Teamsters, air hub workers in September “marched on the boss and successfully shut down operations with full pay until conditions improved” when wildfires “caused intense heat and dangerous fumes at their facility and Amazon refused to safeguard their health.”
The air hub joins a list of Amazon facilities in California and nationwide where at least some workers are trying to unionize. The Teamsters said it formed unions with Amazon workers in San Francisco, Victorville, the city of Industry, Queens, N.Y. and Atlanta.
Workers at Amazon’s John F. Kennedy International Airport facility in New York City voted to affiliate with the Teamsters in June, and in August, a judge ruled Amazon must bargain with the Teamsters on behalf of Amazon drivers in Palmdale, the Teamsters said.
