Amazon cracks down on Teamsters’ union efforts; labor leaders detained

Seven union activists with the Teamsters were handcuffed, detained and criminally charged while protesting outside an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island last month, as tensions between the e-commerce giant and the powerful union escalate.

Video footage of the July 17 protest obtained by The Washington Post shows New York Police Department officers rounding up and restraining union leaders – including Teamsters officials and local warehouse union activists – after warning them they would be “subject to arrest,” for remaining on “Amazon property,” amid a crowd of protesters.

The Teamsters say the incident took place on public land outside the warehouse, where police have informed workers they can safely protest. An NYPD officer says in a video that the protesters were on Amazon’s property. But NYPD officials told The Post they could not provide details about the incident because there was no police report.

“This is what union busting is all about,” Antonio Rosario, a Teamsters’ lead Amazon organizer in New York, yelled into a megaphone, as local police threaten to arrest protesters, video footage shows. “This is not Amazon property,” he later added.

The Teamsters’ demonstration, which included a picket and rally, was timed to coincide with Amazon Prime Day.

Mary Kate Paradis, an Amazon spokeswoman, said in a statement that “all non-employees were asked to leave our property,” and that after several attempts to ease the situation, the company had “engaged local law enforcement, as is our standard protocol.”

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.

The crackdown on organizers comes not long after the Amazon Labor Union officially affiliated with the Teamsters, a new partnership that marked an escalation of the fight to organize Amazon, including the warehouse complex in Staten Island that serves New York City.

The NYPD charged union leaders with a combination of trespassing, refusal to disperse and disorderly conduct, according to criminal court summonses reviewed by The Post.

But later, Teamsters spokeswoman Kara Deniz said the union received word that the charges had been dropped as the NYPD did not submit the summonses to the court.

Police restrained union leaders on a strip of land near an Amazon warehouse, known as LDJ5. Multiple union protests and large gatherings have been held without police intervention at the location. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) gave speeches and rallied with Amazon workers on the same spot in 2022.

Detained union leaders were surprised at the turn of events. Earlier in the day, a police officer had snapped a photo of labor activists posing with an inflatable corporate fat cat at the same place where union activists were later handcuffed.

An NYPD spokesperson for the New York Police Department said the agency did not have an arrest record on file for the incident. They said a criminal court summons did not qualify as an arrest.

The Teamsters disputed that claim, noting that police threatened protesters with arrest, handcuffed them, transported them to the police station, confiscated their phones and cameras and criminally charged them – all common elements of being arrested.

Amazon has long been hostile toward efforts to unionize its workforce. The company has ramped up its anti-union tactics in recent weeks, as the Teamsters have devoted resources, staff and expertise to their fight, union activists say.

In 2022, the Staten Island complex’s largest warehouse – known as JFK8 – became the first Amazon facility in the United States to vote to unionize, notching one of the biggest victories for the labor movement in a generation. But that effort subsequently floundered amid an onslaught of legal challenges from Amazon and internal union conflicts. Amazon has also refused to recognize the union.

Union activists at the facility cemented their partnership with the Teamsters in June, when warehouse workers voted by 98 percent to affiliate with the transportation workers’ union. The Teamsters has some 1.3 million members nationwide and a national campaign to unionize workers at Amazon, the county’s second-largest private employer.

Since the affiliation with the Teamsters became official, Amazon has cracked down on organizing efforts, said Connor Spence, Amazon Labor Union president, who was elected this week to lead the local union, replacing Christian Smalls.

Inside the warehouse, anti-union consultants monitor workers, and the company has removed pro-union messages on an internal bulletin, Spence said. Organizers have also been disciplined for leafleting outside the warehouse and threatened with termination, he added. Meanwhile, the company has also beefed up security by installing new fencing near where labor activists congregate and requiring company identification for access to its parking lot.

Paradis, the Amazon spokeswoman, said that warehouse has had “several incidents” in recent weeks “where individuals have trespassed and refused to leave our property, which is why we’ve added additional security measures to the site.”

“You have no ability to do anything,” Spence said. “They didn’t let us do the picket. They brought the union busters back. They’ve been disciplining people like crazy. Amazon definitely sees the Teamsters’ presence as an escalation.”