SKOKIE, Ill. (CBS) — Amazon workers began a strike at a strike Thursday in Skokie.

The strike was deliberately authorized in the midst of the busy holiday delivery season nationwide for a reason—with the Teamsters Union pushing the company for a contract.

But experts said the strike does not necessarily mean Amazon customers won’t get their orders in time.

Workers walked off the job at the DIL7 Amazon Logistics Delivery Station, at 3639 Howard St. in Skokie, around 6 a.m. Thursday. The Teamsters Union has called the strike the largest ever against the company.

The strikers stayed put throughout the day.

“It’s profit over people,” said striking Amazon worker Ash’shura Brooks.

Strikes are also happening at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and five other delivery stations—three in Southern California; one in Maspeth, Queens in New York City; and one in Atlanta. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.

“This has been a long fight with Amazon,” Brooks said. “We’ve given Amazon chance after chance to come meet with us.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said the Amazon delivery drivers are fighting for a contract with better wages and workplace safety. The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.

“This strike is an effort to put pressure on Amazon,” said Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State University.

The union said it gave Amazon until Dec. 15 to negotiate a contract after hundreds of workers at the Skokie delivery facility organized with Teamsters Local 705 earlier this year, but so far, Amazon has maintained the drivers are contractors, not employees, and has refused to even recognize a union.

“The reason the Teamsters are doing this at this particular point in time is because they have some leverage,” Clark said. “This peak Christmas season—when people are sending and receiving packages from Amazon—to have a shot across the bow and send a message to Amazon they’re not going to go away.”

Amazon said it does not expect any impact on its operations during the strike. Clark said the strike indeed does not necessarily mean all packages will be delayed or come late.

“My understanding is it’s going to be a very small percentage of packages that are shipped by Amazon that are going to be affected,” Clark said.

But this does not mean nobody will feel an effect at all.

“The average person isn’t going to feel anything, but there are some people who might have delayed packages,” Clark said.

Amazon issued this statement late Wednesday:

“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative. The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.”

Amazon workers on the picket line in Skokie denied the company’s accusations.

• Skokie
• Amazon

Tara Molina

Tara Molina is a general assignment reporter for CBS2 Chicago.

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