Teamsters Vote To Prioritize Unionization Of Amazon Workforce

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has voted to prioritize their efforts for supporting the unionization of the Amazon.com Inc. AMZN workforce.

What Happened: The announcement came at the end of the union's 30th international convention. In a statement, the Teamsters announced the passage of a resolution for "the creation of a Division structure within the International Union for the Amazon Project and to fully fund and supply necessary resources to support its goals."

Randy Korgan, Teamsters National Director for Amazon and Secretary-Treasurer of Local 1932 in San Bernardino, California, told the convention audience that "Amazon poses an existential threat to the rights and standards our members have fought for and won."

But rather than see the campaign against the e-commerce giant as a fight, Korgan stated this effort could strengthen organized labor in general and the Teamsters in particular.

"It also poses a tremendous opportunity for us to engage our members, build large volunteer organizing committees, build even stronger community labor alliances, more deeply integrate racial and other social justice struggles into our work and more," Korgan said. "Standing on the shoulders of proud working people, who built our union for more than 100 years, the Teamsters will build the types of worker and community power necessary to take on one of the most powerful corporations in the world and win."

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What Happens Next: Earlier this week, Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa sent a letter to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee calling for the passage of bills that address corporate anti-trust and dominance for big tech companies, including Amazon.

There have been two failed attempts to unionize the Amazon workforce, first in 2014 at an Amazon distribution center in Delaware and in April at a warehouse in Alabama.

Photo: Mike Mozart / Flickr Creative Commons.