Workers at Amazon and Starbucks believe that the Christmas and New Year season is an opportune time to strike. On Friday, Starbucks workers plan to walk off the job in three U.S. cities, and their union has warned that this strike could spread nationwide in the busy lead-up to Christmas.¨

Meanwhile, thousands of Amazon workers launched what they are calling the "largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history" on Thursday. They aim to increase pressure on the retail giant during the peak of the holiday shopping season.

Why? Here is one explanation.

Broken promises

Starbucks Workers United, representing baristas at numerous outlets nationwide, stated that its action aims to compel the company to enhance pay and working conditions after months of negotiations that they claim have stalled.

"Nobody wants to strike. It's a last resort, but Starbucks has broken its promise to thousands of baristas and left us with no choice," a union press release quoted Texas barista Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi as saying.

The strike, which the union says will hit more outlets every day until Tuesday, comes as Starbucks grapples with stagnating sales in key markets.
Former Chipotle boss Brian Niccol was brought on board this year with a mandate to staunch a decline that saw quarterly revenue worldwide fall three percent to $9 billion.

"In September, Brian Niccol became CEO with a compensation package worth at least $113 million," thousands of times the wage of the average barista, said union member Michelle Eisen in the statement.

The union said Starbucks had not engaged fruitfully for several months, and threatened it was ready to "show the company the consequences."

"We refuse to accept zero immediate investment in baristas' wages and no resolution of the hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practices," said Lynne Fox, president of Workers United.

"Union baristas know their value, and they're not going to accept a proposal that doesn't treat them as true partners."

Starbucks pointed the finger back at Workers United, saying that its delegates "prematurely ended our bargaining session this week."

"It is disappointing they didn't return to the table given the progress we've made to date," the company told AFP in an email.

It added that it offers "a competitive average pay of over $18 per hour", and benefits that include health coverage, paid family leave, company stock grants and free college tuition for employees.

"We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements. We need the union to return to the table," the company said.

Last mile

The strike at Amazon is impacting facilities across the United States. Workers on the picket lines include Amazon employees who are members of the Teamsters labor union, as well as truck drivers who transport packages in and out of these facilities.

The move comes amid a Teamsters national organizing campaign at Amazon, which has long fought unionization. The country's second-largest labor union had given Amazon until December 15 to agree to bargaining dates, pointing to progress in unionization campaigns around the United States.

In Germany, an affiliate of the union ver.di also initiated a stoppage at an Amazon facility in the western part of the country, saying it was operating in solidarity with the US union. The German union plans stoppages at eight other facilities involving 16,000 people through the end of 2024.

The Amazon DBK4 warehouse in New York continued operations Thursday, but the pickets "definitely slowed down" deliveries in and out of the facility, said Tony Rosciglione, treasurer of the Teamsters Local 804 in New York.

Rosciglione said there were about 300 people including union supporters on the picket line in Queens, where the union had signed up additional Amazon workers interested in joining the Teamsters, he told AFP in a phone interview.

Besides New York, workers will picket at facilities in Atlanta, southern California, San Francisco and Illinois, with other Amazon Teamsters "prepared to join them," the union said in a statement.

Teamsters boss Sean O'Brien told Fox Business key priorities for workers include solid wages, benefits and the upholding of work-safety standards.

"Collective bargaining is all about leverage, and this is our leverage," O'Brien told the broadcast. "This is our pinch point."

The Teamsters union says it represents some 10,000 workers, or less than one percent, at Amazon facilities around the country.

Organizing drive

The DBK4 facility is among the sites where workers have in recent months demanded union recognition after signing up supporters. Workers have made similar demands in Atlanta and at an air facility in California.

Amazon has opposed unionization drives, which have depicted unions as a way to improve pay, ensure more manageable employment schedules and promote better workplace safety.

The company on Thursday accused the striking workers -- whom it said were "almost entirely outsiders" -- of intimidation.

"The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and have brought in outsiders to come and harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous," Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hand said in a statement to US media.

Workers at a New York facility in Staten Island became the first Amazon employees to vote in favor of a union in April 2022.

Originally an independent union, the Amazon workers voted in June to affiliate with the Teamsters.

However, Amazon has refused to bargain on a contract at Staten Island, arguing that the vote was unfairly administered by the National Labor Relations Board.

The case is one of myriad brewing conflicts between Amazon and the NLRB. An agency administrative court in November ruled that Amazon could not require workers to attend "captive-audience" meetings where managers argue against unionization; Amazon has appealed the decision.

Amazon has contested the authority of the NLRB in a succession of appeals that could go to the Supreme Court.

The Teamsters campaign comes as the complexion of the NLRB looks poised to change with appointees of Joe Biden expected to be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump, who has historically been far less supportive of organized labor.

Art Wheaton, director of Labor Studies at Cornell's School of Industrial Relations, said the timing of the action near Christmas was designed to maximize the Teamsters' leverage.

"During Christmas time, Amazon is probably at its peak," Wheaton said. "There's not much more leverage than downtown New York City the week before Christmas."

With information from AFP