SKOKIE, Ill. (CBS) – Amazon workers began a strike on Thursday in Skokie.

The strike was intentionally authorized in the middle of the busy holiday delivery season across the country for a reason – because the Teamsters Union pressured the company into a contract.

But experts said the strike doesn’t necessarily mean Amazon customers won’t receive their orders on time.

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

The strikers remained in place throughout the day.

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

There are also strikes in 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 expects no impact on its operations during what the union is calling the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.

“This has been a long battle with Amazon,” Brooks said. “We gave Amazon one chance after another to get to know us.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Amazon delivery drivers are fighting for a contract with better wages and more 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 attempt 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 joined with Teamsters Local 705 earlier this year. So far, however, Amazon has maintained that the drivers are contractors, not employees, and has refused to even recognize a union.

“The reason the Teamsters are doing this at this particular time is because they have some influence,” Clark said. “During this peak holiday season – when people are sending and receiving packages from Amazon – if you go ahead and send a message to Amazon, they won’t disappear.”

Amazon said it expects no impact on its operations during the strike. Clark said the strike doesn’t necessarily mean all packages will be delayed or arrive late.

“It is my understanding that only a very small percentage of packages shipped by Amazon will be affected,” Clark said.

But that doesn’t mean no one will feel any effect at all.

“The average person won’t feel anything, but there are some people who may have had packages delayed,” Clark said.

Amazon issued this statement late Wednesday:

“For more than a year, 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 spread a false narrative. The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to force Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and the subject of several pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.”

Amazon workers on the strike line in Skokie denied the company’s allegations.