The Teamsters and Amazon have reached agreement on how the company will deal with workers who walk off the job as part of any organizing efforts, an outgrowth of an ongoing case before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding an action taken by Amazon employees in San Francisco.
According to the Teamsters, Amazon had deducted “unpaid time” (UPT) from employees who engaged in any walkout. The union said during the pre-Christmas walkout in 2024, which lasted about a week, there were pickets at more than 200 Amazon warehouses in more than 20 states.
“The company effectively uses UPT as an attendance policy, and Amazon may terminate workers when they run out of it,” the union said.
While there was widespread coverage of the pre-Christmas walkouts, the one in San Francisco at the DCK6 facility that led to the NLRB action occurred in October. The Teamsters filed a complaint with the NLRB soon after.
Under the agreement, according to the Teamsters, “Amazon…will now restore the illegally deducted time to affected workers and ensure all Amazon workers can strike in the future without losing their UPT.”
Eileen Hards, a spokeswoman for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), said the San Francisco action before the NLRB is not affected by the agreement with the Teamsters.
Usual disagreement
But as is so often the case with statements from Amazon and the union, there are differences–often huge–claimed by the two sides on the impact of any labor developments.
In its prepared release about the settlement, the Teamsters said the deal will cover all of about 1,300 Amazon facilities in the U.S. Amazon said the actual number is 12.
“While we believe our team managed these situations appropriately, we’ve agreed to resolve the matter so we can move forward and continue working directly with our employees to make Amazon a great place to work,” Amazon said in a prepared statement regarding the settlement. “Meanwhile, the Teamsters are only focused on spreading misinformation and mischaracterizing the terms of this resolution.”
That the San Francisco action before the NLRB is ongoing was reaffirmed as recently as Tuesday. The General Counsel’s (GC) office, in a brief filed to the ALJ handling the case, largely backed Amazon in its complaint.
According to the Teamsters’ recap of what happened in San Francisco, described in a filing before the NLRB, “about 25 DCK6 employees walked into the facility breakroom and presented Site Manager Adam Carr with a letter demanding that Respondent recognize (the Teamsters) as the exclusive collective-bargaining representative of DCK6 employees,” the union said. “Carr refused to accept the letter, so the employees placed it at his feet and walked out chanting.”
Most recent Amazon-related unionization efforts by the Teamsters, including at the direct service providers where the employees are not directly employed by Amazon, have involved some sort of submission of authorization cards to declare a desire to unionize. That process is often referred to as “card check.”
The letter the union described by the Teamsters in its filing would fall under that umbrella.
Lots of managers flow in
According to the GC’s brief, Amazon’s “campaign against the Union began immediately. The facility, normally staffed by three to six managers per shift, was flooded with 10 to 15 outside managers imported from facilities as far away as Seattle, Michigan, and even the East Coast.”
Other allegations by the Teamsters involved improper dismissals of union activists and various forms of pressure put on workers to discourage unionization. (Some were positive inducements, such as the company providing snacks to the workers. Amazon saw that as a perk; the Teamsters saw it as illegal under labor law).
NLRB GC sides mostly with Teamsters
Ultimately, the NLRB’s General Counsel found that Amazon had violated several parts of the National Labor Relations Act. It asked for the Administrative Law Judge’s office to “grant all relief appropriate to remedy those violations.”
There are only two Amazon-owned locations where workers have voted to be represented by a union. One is a warehouse on Staten Island, New York, which was first organized by a grass roots union that later aligned with the Teamsters. No contract has been signed there.
The second was by workers in early 2025 at a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia. The union there is the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The vote there was close, with only about 57% of the workers voting in favor of the union.
Hards said Amazon admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. “Employees have always had the right to express their concerns about their work experience and this is already protected by the National Labor Relations Act,” she said in an email. “That’s not new or the result of this case.”
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