Amazon Vows Labor Charges as Teamsters Plan to Expand Strike

An International Brotherhood of Teamsters official said more Amazon.com Inc. workers would go out on strike in the near future, while the company said it is mounting a legal attack against the widespread action.

The Teamsters’ Amazon Division Director Randy Korgan told Bloomberg Law on Thursday that additional Amazon employees would be walking off the job “soon,” but declined to provide further information about where and when the strike expansion would take place.

Meanwhile, Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards told Bloomberg Law that the e-commerce giant has filed unfair labor practice charges against the union with the National Labor Relations Board. She didn’t disclose the nature of the charges.

“We fully believe these acts are illegal,” Hards said.

The Teamsters said it called on thousands of workers to walk off the job Thursday at seven Amazon facilities in four states where the union has organized the company’s contract delivery drivers or warehouse workers. It also said it would set up picket lines at hundreds of other Amazon facilities nationwide in an effort to slow the company’s production six days before Christmas.

The only unionized Amazon facilities to authorize strikes with the Teamsters, but didn’t participate Thursday morning, were JFK8 in Staten Island, N.Y., and the KSBD air delivery hub in San Bernadino, Calif.