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Thousands of Amazon workers launched what they called the “largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history” on Thursday, seeking to maximize pressure on the retail giant at the height of the holiday shopping season.

The industrial action targets seven Amazon facilities in the United States. Workers on the picket lines include Amazon employees affiliated with the Teamsters union and truck drivers who transport packages in and out of the facilities.

The move comes amid a nationwide Teamsters organizing campaign at Amazon, which has long fought unionization. The country’s second-largest union had given Amazon until December 15 to agree to bargaining dates, citing progress in union campaigns across the United States.

In Germany, an affiliate of the ver.di union also initiated a closure of an Amazon facility in the west of the country, saying it was working in solidarity with the US union. The German union is planning closures in eight additional facilities with 16,000 employees by the end of 2024.

The Amazon DBK4 warehouse in New York continued operations Thursday, but picketing has “definitely slowed” deliveries in and out of the facility, said Tony Rosciglione, treasurer of Teamsters Local 804 in New York.

Rosciglione said about 300 people, including union supporters, were on the strike line in Queens, where the union had recruited more Amazon workers interested in joining the Teamsters, he told AFP in a telephone interview.

In addition to New York, workers will also picket facilities in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois, with other Amazon Teamsters “ready to join them,” the union said in a statement.

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters CEO Sean O’Brien said in the statement.

“We have given Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do the right thing for our members. They ignored it.”

The Teamsters union says it represents about 10,000 workers, or less than 1 percent, at Amazon facilities across the country.

The DBK4 facility is among sites where workers have called for union recognition in recent months after gaining supporters. Workers in Atlanta and at an aviation facility in California have made similar demands.

Amazon has long fought union efforts, portraying unions as a way to improve wages, ensure more manageable employment schedules and promote better workplace safety.

Workers at a New York City plant in Staten Island became the first Amazon employees to vote for a union in April 2022.

Originally an independent union, Amazon workers voted to join the Teamsters in June.

However, Amazon has refused to negotiate a contract in Staten Island, saying the vote was conducted unfairly by the National Labor Relations Board.

The company has challenged the NLRB’s authority in a series of appeals that could go all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Teamsters election campaign comes at a time when the face of the NLRB appears set to change, with Joe Biden’s nominees expected to be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump, who has been far less supportive of organized labor in the past.

Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at the Cornell School of Industrial Relations, said the timing of the action near Christmas was designed to maximize the Teamsters’ influence.

“Amazon is probably at its peak during the holiday season,” Wheaton said. “There isn’t much more leverage than downtown New York City in the week before Christmas.”

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