Nearly 10,000 Amazon employees at locations across the United States walked off the job on Thursday morning. The Teamsters Union, which claims to represent them, is calling this the largest strike ever against the company in its history.
The strike was strategically planned to occur ahead of the Christmas holiday, in the midst of the busiest time of year for deliveries.
News 12 spoke with Parag Amin, a business analyst and attorney, who said there's a very real possibility that holiday packages from Amazon will be delayed.
“If you're relying on Amazon to be able to deliver your packages for Christmas if you've waited to do Christmas shopping, now might be a good time to consider a plan B,” Amin said.
Workers walked off the job at Amazon facilities in New York City, California, Georgia and Illinois.
Packages going to other locations in the U.S. are also routed through these facilities.
"Even if your local location is not on strike, your packages may still be delayed,” Amin added.
Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said that the union gave Amazon plenty of chances to avoid a strike.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” O’Brien said.
But Amin says Amazon was given less than a week, which is a very short window of time to negotiate labor terms.
The union says workers are fighting for higher wages, better benefits and safer work conditions. According to Amin, "Amazon is very meticulous about how much time its employees are spending in terms of doing work in terms of taking breaks."
According to reports, Amazon said it does not consider delivery drivers like the ones on strike to be its employees, claiming the drivers who decided to unionize are working for a third party.