Amazon delivery drivers and third-party workers for the nation’s predominant shopping platform have walked off the job in the past week, seeking what they consider a fair labor agreement — and triggering widespread concern among consumers about a potential disruption of deliveries amid a surge of last-minute shopping just before Christmas.
But experts who spoke to ABC News — all of whom study the e-commerce giant’s vast distribution network — said there is little indication that the nationwide demonstrations have imposed significant delays of package delivery, let alone cancellations.
“I haven’t seen evidence that the strike has been effective because of the high level of complexity of the Amazon network,” Jean-Paul Rodrigue, a professor of maritime business administration at Texas A&M University-Galveston who studies Amazon’s freight distribution, told ABC News.
“You’re dealing with a hydra. You can try to chop off one of its heads, but there are other heads,” Rodrigue added.
However, the protests could delay deliveries by one or two days near major cities where efforts are focused.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement that thousands of its Amazon-affiliated members are striking in areas including New York City, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; San Bernardino, California; San Francisco, California; and Skokie, Illinois.
The union has focused its efforts on delivery centers that carry packages over the “last mile” to a customer’s home, Barry Eidlin, a professor of labor sociology at McGill University, told ABC News.
Demonstrations in recent days appear to have occasionally slowed trucks passing in and out of the delivery centers, which could delay local package deliveries in those areas by a few days, Eidlin added.
Speaking to “Good Morning America” on Friday, the second day of the protests, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said the union had heard some “success stories” in its effort to disrupt deliveries.
“We are slowing the packages down,” O’Brien said, later adding: “We’ve got to use our leverage. Unfortunately, it may come at the inconvenience of the consumer.”
In that case, he urged consumers to have patience — and to fault Amazon for any delivery delays.
“Amazon is the one that caused this issue, not the drivers, not the Teamsters union,” O’Brien said.
Teamsters began participating in what they are calling a strike at seven Amazon delivery centers across the country last week.
They were joined by unionized Amazon workers at a 5,500-person warehouse in Staten Island, New York, on Saturday, the Teamsters said. Some company workers at an air hub facility in San Bernardino also joined over the weekend, the Teamsters added.
However, Amazon doesn’t consider the situation a “strike,” since there hasn’t been a work stoppage, according to Kelly Nantel, a spokesperson for the e-commerce titan.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, Nantel said the striking workers are not Amazon employees and that the demonstrations have had no impact on Amazon’s operations.
“What you’re seeing at these sites are almost entirely outsiders — not Amazon employees or partners — and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters,” Nantel said. “The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and have brought in outsiders to harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous.”
Amazon also said in a statement to ABC News that the federal government has not ordered the company to bargain with Teamsters-affiliated workers — and it said that none of its workers have paid dues to the Teamsters.
Overall, nearly 9,000 Amazon workers, across 20 bargaining units, have affiliated with the Teamsters, according to the union.
This means that the protesting workers represent less than 1% of the company’s 800,000 operations employees in the U.S.
And the picket lines involve a small fraction of the company’s roughly 585 delivery centers, making it unlikely that such demonstrations will meaningfully impact package delivery, even for nearby customers, said Marc Wulfraat, president and founder of logistics consulting firm MWPVL.
“For the Teamsters to have a meaningful impact, they would have to penetrate a significant number of those delivery stations in order to really cause Amazon heartburn,” Wulfraat said.
The headline-grabbing protests could also inspire some workers to organize unions at new facilities, posing a future threat to the company’s distribution network — but the protesters appear far from attaining the scale necessary for such impact, the experts said.
“We appreciate all our team’s great work to serve their customers and communities, and thanks to them, we’re not seeing any impact to customers’ orders,” Nantel said in her statement to ABC News.
Regardless of whether the protests meaningfully impact Amazon’s operations, the public attention could dissuade some customers from ordering out of fear of a possible delay, experts said.
“It’s possible a small percentage of customers might choose to buy elsewhere,” Rob Handfield, a professor of operations and supply-chain management at North Carolina State University, told ABC News.
Public awareness of the labor effort could also draw more employees to the Teamsters, building union momentum and posing a threat to the company’s distribution network in the coming months or years, experts observed.
“There certainly could be some kind of snowball effect. If I was an Amazon leader, that’s what I’d be most afraid about,” Rodrigue said.
But he also noted that the workers appear fairly far from threatening a major disruption, adding: “They still have a ways to go.”
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