Morning Brew Daily
Amazon Faces Pre-Holiday Strike & MrBeast Brings YouTube Magic to Hollywood
Fri, 20 Dec 2024
Episode 479: Neal and Toby break down the teamsters going on strike against Amazon, impacting facilities in seven states less than a week before Christmas. Next up, MrBeast's competition show comes to Amazon Prime Video that reportedly costs $100 million to make. Then, Darden restaraunts are making money and why is NBA viewership down? Finally headlines you need to know on this fine Friday. Build your Range Rover Sport at landroverusa.com Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here: https://link.chtbl.com/MBD Watch Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What are the implications of the Amazon strike?
If you waited till the last minute to holiday shop, you might be out of luck. Teamsters union members officially went on strike at Amazon early on Thursday, affecting operations at seven facilities in multiple states. Okay, maybe some of that fear-mongering about late holiday gifts was a little overblown.
The Teamsters represent roughly 9,000 Amazon workers nationwide, which is less than 1% of the company's total U.S. workforce. Despite their small size, though, the Teamsters, who are fighting for basic benefits including better wages and hours, are looking to apply maximum pressure during the busy holiday season.
It's unclear how long the strike might last, and things are muddied by the fact that Amazon refuses to negotiate since it does not even recognize the union. To be clear, a spokesperson for Amazon said the Teamsters don't represent any Amazon employees despite their claims to the contrary. This entire narrative is a PR play.
Labor unrest is certainly a key theme to watch out for this holiday season as Starbucks workers union representing over 10,000 baristas also recently authorized a potential strike. So this holiday period, Neil, it could be a bit of a rocky one.
It could. Let's talk about the narrative that Amazon is accusing the Teamsters of creating or manufacturing. So Teamsters President Sean O'Brien said in a statement, if your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our customers. They ignored it.
So this is him trying to paint Amazon as the greedy major corporation. That deadline that he's talking about is a December 15th deadline that the union wanted Amazon to come to the table and begin negotiations for.
They, as you mentioned, don't recognize the Teamsters as a union that represents their workers because these are drivers that are hired by third-party delivery companies that Amazon works with. Amazon does not recognize them as their employees. The National Labor Relations Board does, and Amazon is currently in some legal wrangling with the NLRB to figure that out.
But these are the two sides here. Amazon shares are up as we're talking right now. So investors clearly don't think that this is going to be a big hit on business. But Washington Post talked to some labor experts who said that if you live in the cities where They're where these strikes are happening. This is their last mile to go from the fulfillment centers to your house.
You could see perhaps see some delays as Amazon has to make some interesting decisions about which packages it prioritizes. And the major hotspots here are New York City, Atlanta and California.
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