Teamsters union strike against Amazon to impact Skokie facility amid holiday shipping season

SKOKIE, Ill. (WLS) -- The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon that starts Thursday morning, and it includes a facility in the north suburbs.

The union says thousands of Amazon workers will walk off the job at 6 a.m., right in the middle of the busy holiday shipping season.

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The strike will impact a facility in Skokie.

Teamsters leadership is calling the strike the "largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history."

"The way Amazon treats its workers is un-American," Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien said in a news release Wednesday. "Amazon's so-called 'leaders' should treat their workers fairly - they just want to put food on the table for their families. Instead, Amazon executives risk ruining the holidays for their customers because of their addiction to putting profits over people."

The Skokie Amazon facility "serves thousands of households throughout Chicagoland. The Teamsters represent hundreds of workers at the facility," the Teamsters news release read in part.

The retail giant said that its operations will not be affected by any of the union's actions. Although the Teamsters claim to represent 7,000 Amazon workers nationwide, that accounts for less than 1% of the company's US workforce.

The clash between the union and the online retailing giant are just the latest effort by the Teamsters to put pressure on the company and its strong anti-union policy amid the key holiday shopping period. It's also a sign that organized labor is trying new strategies to represent workers at Amazon, America's second largest private sector employer.

But Amazon shows no indication it is willing to reach a deal with the Teamsters, or even recognizes that the union speaks for any of its workers, despite the union declaring that employees at numerous Amazon facilities have signed cards asking to join.

Amazon issued the following statement Wednesday night to ABC News:

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

CNN Wire contributed to this report.

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