Employees at Amazon center in Gates will picket in support of strike downstate

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Amazon employees in the Rochester area will rally on Thursday in support of unionized workers on strike against the company in downstate New York.

Workers will hold a picket in front of the ROC1 Amazon Fulfillment Center on Manitou Road in Gates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The workers are walking in solidarity with the Teamsters union in Staten Island, one of the facilities across the nation where workers are striking.

Union leaders say Amazon has refused to negotiate with them over higher pay and better working conditions. The strikes happening on Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six different delivery stations in southern California, New York, Illinois, and Georgia.

Teamsters represents nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people that Amazon employs.

The picket is happening amid a busy holiday season. An Amazon spokesperson told News10NBC that they don’t expect the picket to impact operations. Here is the statement from the spokesperson:

“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.”