AMAZON TEAMSTERS BECOME FIRST UNION TO WIN BARGAINING ORDER AGAINST E-COMMERCE GIANT
Ruling from National Labor Relations Board Orders Company to Recognize Teamsters
WASHINGTON, April 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In a historic decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that Amazon illegally refused to recognize the Staten Island-based Amazon Labor Union-International Brotherhood of Teamsters (ALU-IBT) Local 1 and ordered it to begin negotiations with the Teamsters.
“Four years ago, Amazon workers at JFK8 won an NLRB election. Now, on this monumental anniversary, they have become the first group ever to force the company to recognize their union, and they did so as Teamsters,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “This fight is far from over but this ruling from the NLRB is an historic victory for Amazon Teamsters nationwide and a testament to worker power.”
Roughly 5,500 warehouse workers at the JFK8 facility in Staten Island formed their union on April 1, 2022. In June 2024, they affiliated with the Teamsters Union, which officially chartered ALU-IBT Local 1. Over the past four years, the NLRB has repeatedly found that Amazon has illegally and willfully ignored the union’s legitimacy while attempting to coerce Teamsters at JFK8 into ending their organizing efforts.
“Amazon’s strategy these last few years has been to delay, delay, delay — and the NLRB confirmed it because the law is not on their side,” said Randy Korgan, Director of the Teamsters Amazon Division. “Amazon Teamsters know that this company will try to do anything it can to worm out of its responsibilities. The Teamsters will continue to build worker power at Amazon and hold the company accountable wherever it violates the law.”
Amazon is also required to post notice of the NLRB’s ruling in a visible location for workers at the JFK8 facility informing them of their rights to unionize. With this ruling, Amazon has exhausted its options to appeal to the NLRB on the issue of unionization for Teamsters at the facility.
“We are making history at Amazon, and we are doing it through undiluted worker power,” said Connor Spence, President of ALU-IBT Local 1. “Amazon has used every resource it has to try and break us over the past four years, and it continues to fail because vicious rapacity is no match for collective action.”
The decision came just one day after the union announced another historic victory that upheld Amazon Teamsters’ right to strike.
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents over 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on X @Teamsters and on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.
Contact:
Matt McQuaid, (771) 241-0015
mmcquaid@teamster.org
SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
