A Letter From the President of ALU-IBT Local 1

Brothers and Sisters of JFK8,

Our parent union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has made a formal demand on behalf of all of us at JFK8, and over twenty other warehouses across ten different states: Amazon, stop stalling and start negotiating.

If Amazon doesn’t come to the table by December 15th, we’re ready to take action. That means a strike.

It’s no secret that the organizing committee at JFK8 has been building for this moment. We conducted a strike authorization vote which concluded on December 1st, where hundreds of JFK8 workers voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a strike.

We set out to gather pledges, somewhat secretly at first, from a minimum of 500 JFK8 workers (ten percent of the warehouse) as a way to ensure we have the critical mass we need to move forward with this historic potential action. The energy, excitement, and courage from JFK8 workers has pushed us far past this goal. As I write this, over 700 workers have pledged to strike if and when the time comes. We believe we can reach 1,000 pledges in the coming days, if not more.

If you’re tired of feeling treated like a number, if you’re tired of being treated with disrespect by management, if you truly believe that there are things at Amazon that need to change, and you believe we can do that by demanding that Amazon stops breaking the law and comes to the table and negotiate a strong union contract, click this link to sign the strike pledge. Once you sign, you’ll be the first to know the timing and details of our strike action.

Pay, benefits, working conditions--we can all achieve real positive change to these things at JFK8 but only if we stand together, build power in numbers, and take action. We can achieve a $30 an hour starting wage, we can achieve longer breaks and more time off, we can achieve better promotion policies, better accommodation policies, and an end to forced labor sharing and mass writeups. Everything is on the table when we start negotiations. Our time is now, so let’s work together and make history!

In Solidarity,
Connor Spence
President, ALU-IBT Local 1