MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Amazon workers, including drivers, are picketing across the country, demanding that the company recognize their unions. This, of course, is happening just before Christmas and Hanukkah next week. How is this going to affect the workers, the company and your packages? NPR's Alina Selyukh is here with us this morning in Studio 31 to fill us in. Good morning.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: Hello, hello.
MARTIN: So let me mention here that Amazon is among NPR's recent financial supporters. Although, of course, we cover it like any other company. So, Alina, how big is this walkout?
SELYUKH: Well, so far, it's been centered around seven facilities. They are near the cities of Atlanta, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Today will be Day 2. Yesterday, we had reporters at several of these locations, including from member stations. They said the workers picketing were mostly delivery drivers, which makes sense because the organizers are the Teamsters union. That group has focused a lot on unionizing drivers, who you see, you know, in those vans dropping packages in your neighborhood. The union says thousands of Teamsters are on strike nationwide. Our reporters at different sites described crowds mostly in the dozens. They swelled and receded during the day.
MARTIN: Have these strikes disrupted package delivery?
SELYUKH: Amazon says no. Obviously, the company is massive. It has hundreds of facilities. It is fairly adept at shifting where packages get boxed and finding more drivers. But obviously, also, if the pickets continue for a long while, the holiday crunch, you know, could get trickier.
MARTIN: So describe what the picketers are doing.
SELYUKH: Sure. So hearing our reporters describe the scene in detail, it seems that the idea is not so much disrupting your holiday shopping but to use this moment to recruit more drivers into the union. Here's what it sounded like in Queens in New York. Strikers there were calling out to drivers who were crossing the picket line to go, you know, do their work, do the delivery routes.
UNIDENTIFIED AMAZON WORKER: Come sign up after your route. It's not too late. You are part of this movement. You can be a Teamster, too. Come be a Teamster. Sign up after your route.
SELYUKH: And at a warehouse outside Los Angeles, union workers and organizers did block exits for delivery vans. But then they would speak to the drivers about the union effort and allow those vans to go on their way.
MARTIN: OK, so tell us more about what the union wants from Amazon.
SELYUKH: Well, the Teamsters want Amazon to recognize the union and to negotiate collective bargaining agreements. That's where you get into all the pay and the benefits. And here's what we heard from Samantha Thomas (ph), who's been driving for Amazon in Georgia since May.
SAMANTHA THOMAS: We're fighting for better benefits, better vacation time - better pay, most importantly. And we're also fighting for safer working conditions, like having our proper winter uniforms that have not been provided for us.
SELYUKH: And one major sticking point is that Amazon simply does not recognize the Teamsters as representing its workers. In fact, Amazon says its workers don't need a union. It trumpets its pay and benefits. And for delivery drivers, the company even has a court case arguing that it's technically not the employer responsible for these drivers because they get hired through contract firms. The Teamsters say almost 10,000 Amazon workers have joined the union. And it's had some backing of federal labor officials, arguing that Amazon is a joint employer responsible for delivery drivers.
MARTIN: So, Alina, what happens next?
SELYUKH: The pickets are expected to continue. We don't know for how long. I am watching to see, you know, how many other facilities, how many workers the Teamsters can get to walk off their jobs.
MARTIN: That's NPR's business correspondent Alina Selyukh. Alina, thank you.
SELYUKH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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