A Teamsters-led "walk out" of Amazon Fulfillment Center drivers on Dec. 19 managed to attract just tens of strikers, not the "nearly 10,000" promised by the union.
That's according to an Amazon warehouse manager who spoke with Globe Banner.
The manager said just seven people at his fulillment center, which employs more than 1,500, joined the Teamsters' walk-out.
He said that he confimed that three of the seven were Amazon drivers, and that the other four were "paid Teamsters protestors who don't work for us."
"These people want to work here-- they like the job and the pay and the benefits," the source said. "The Teamsters walk-out was a total dud. I wasn't surprised."
The Teamsters' targeted fulfillment center drivers at seven Amazon facilities in the U.S., including those in Staten Island, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, suburban Chicago and three in southern California, near Los Angeles.
These drivers work for companies with whom Amazon contracts to deliver its packages to drivers.
A Teamsters' press release had promised "the largest strike against Amazon in U.S. History" unless the company implored its employees and contractors to join and pay dues to the union.
"We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien.
The Teamsters, or International Brotherhood of Teamsters, says it has 1.3 million members in the U.S across 358 locals, including primarily freight drivers and warehouse workers.
Amazon's 390,000 drivers in the U.S. earn an average of $22 per hour, according to the company.