In recent years union organizing at Amazon has increased significantly, Beginning with the defeated RWDSU campaign in Bessemer, Alabama in 2021 unions have been organized at multiple facilities, the most successful of which was the JFK8 drive that culminated in the 2022 victory by the independent Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island. Though the union, which has since been affiliated with the IBT, successfully overcame a vicious, anti-union campaign and won an NLRB-sponsored election, the union has not successfully brought the company to the negotiating table. With unions organized in eight facilities in four states, the December strike was an attempt to put pressure on the company to begin negotiations.

While the strike involved less than one percent of Amazon’s US workforce it nonetheless brought significant attention to the working conditions of Amazon warehouse workers and Delivery Service Partners (DSP) in facilities across the country. Local unions affiliated with the IBT set up picket lines comprised of union activists, shop stewards, and union officers with negligible participation from inside Amazon employees, aside from the 8 facilities with formal union memberships. Even the notable JFK8 warehouse had only 201 workers participate in the strike.

The strike nevertheless mobilized a significant segment of IBT members at bargaining units such as UPS, who have a direct interest in organizing Amazon. The greatest success of this nationwide action will most certainly be the cultivation of new contacts in facilities previously unavailable to the union, with interactions between union members and inside Amazon employees the prospects of future organizing drives are greatly improved.

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That election was a response by the union’s rank and file to years of concessionary contracts negotiated by the previous administration that left the membership divided and unable to mount the fight back necessary to overcome management encroachment on their rights and standards on the job. Particularly a hated two-tier system in wages and excessive overtime, which was finally abolished in last year’s UPS contract by the incoming administration. TDU played an instrumental role in that turnaround.

The Convention heard from speakers representing UPS, DHL, and Amazon on the progress of organizing campaigns, contract enforcement, and bargaining as well as fiery speeches by General President O’Brien and the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) Sara Nelson that called for a class struggle orientation in our unions to rebuild Labor’s power.

Increased Militancy and Using Our Ability to Strike

Several speakers pointed to the more frequent exercise of our strike weapon to achieve contract gains and beat back concessionary settlements. The IBT has organized over 100 strikes within the last 2 ½ years contrasting with the previous administration’s 32 strikes over a decade. Included in those figures are the strikes that have been developing at the “nation’s sweatshop” Amazon.

Contract enforcement has been a central focus of activists at UPS seeking to implement the contract language won in last year’s contentious bargaining campaign. Indispensable to those seeking to improve shop floor conditions is the development of skills necessary to organize job actions and campaigns that involve members on the shop floor.

To this end, the Convention held over 30 different workshops on topics ranging from “Overcoming Fear at UPS”, and “Organizing Marches on the Boss” to “How to Hold a Successful Meeting” and “Reforming and Transforming Local Unions”. Workshop instructors diligently prepared highly engaged and intensive programs to share the skills acquired and expand the union’s base.

The Political Environment and the Need for a United Labor Movement

Throughout the Convention organizers strongly emphasized the necessity of maintaining and expanding unity within the labor movement and in our unions. The refrain consistently brought home by organizers was one of unity against division with a looming presidential election that threatens to split the membership of the IBT on political lines, potentially paralyzing the ability to wage effective struggles against employers.

Weeks prior to the Convention saw the new union leadership refuse to endorse any presidential candidate citing the failure of Democrats to deliver on campaign promises of necessary reforms to labor laws and the reinforcement of American workers’ organizing rights. The decision was hotly contested by many corners of the union while many others lauded the decision as a step toward independent labor politics. While no consensus was reached, many came away with a determination and commitment to unity.

The raucous speech given by AFA-CWA president Sara Nelson was a highlight of the weekend sessions. In her speech, she implored shop stewards and activists to orient themselves to a class-wide perspective and intensify our struggles against the capitalist class that is strangling labor and gutting our rights and standards, illustrating her point with numerous examples of workers doing just that today, led by women and people of color in a variety of industries.

Looking Ahead and Organizing a Pole of Class-Oriented Trade Unionism

The fights that loom in the near future will require a class-oriented approach if they hope to be successful. With that knowledge, many Convention goers understood clearly the necessity of expanding their struggles beyond individual companies and industries and the importance solidarity plays in their day-to-day fights with management.

TDU, since its founding in 1976, has sought to be a pole of rank-and-file democracy in the labor movement, being a force that has seen the accomplishment of constitutional changes, a national UPS strike in 1997, and the reversal of many concessions bargained by compromised union officials. Plans discussed by Convention attendees include the expansion of rank-and-file steward networks at the regional level, campaigns for leadership in local unions and joint councils as well as the building of solidarity with other unions engaged in struggles. It will be a fight to accomplish these tasks, but it is necessary to advance the struggles of American labor.

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UPS workers in the region are among the most impacted by heat illnesses and injuries due to climate change in recent years. A result of the company’s ruthless exploitation of its workforce and gross negligence regarding worker safety: this was underscored by the tragic death, in June of this year, of Braden Hasselbeck, an Oklahoma City delivery driver was found, hours after returning to his building, unresponsive at the facility.

In response to multiple worker deaths in the company’s McKinney TX facility and other incidents – including a recent crash involving a fatigued driver – Oklahoma Teamsters have mobilized to take action in solidarity with the struggles of their union, brothers and sisters in North Texas.

Though the national contract, negotiated and ratified last year after a very public and contentious contract campaign, commits UPS to replace a minimum of 28,000 delivery vehicles with air-conditioned models by the expiration of the contract, no new models have been introduced to date.

Across the country, the company has ramped up its efforts to squeeze the maximum amount of production from its workforce, intensifying production harassment, speed-up, and excessive overtime for its drivers rather than taking steps to make safety protocols more effective. Much of the heat illnesses and deaths could’ve been prevented by the introduction of the air-conditioned vehicles promised by the contract. UPS seems to prioritize its stockholders over the safety of its employees.

“UPS Teamsters across the country, including our union siblings in Texas Teamsters Local 767 are facing unbearable and dangerous heat conditions,” said Zakk Flash, a representative of Oklahoma Teamsters Local 886, “we are united in our demand that UPS take immediate action to honor the contract and protect our members’ lives” he continued.

To effectively respond and counter the aggressions of the company, Teamsters will need to develop a class-oriented approach that emphasizes solidarity and militancy. This will require a resolute left-wing within the union that is capable of putting before the membership the most effective strategies and tactics appropriate to the hazards we face.

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