1 min read

Season 5, Episode 166

Amazon workers on strike in Chicago as they fight for a first contract

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Guest Name:


Jonathan Rosenblum | Ebony Echevarria

Guest Website:


Teamsters Amazon Division 

Guest Social Media:


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Supportive Documents:


Jonathan Rosenblum, a labor organizer, and Ebony Echevarria, an Amazon delivery driver, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss ongoing negotiations with Amazon and what the workers are trying to earn through a first contract.

The recently formed Amazon Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is now on strike at the Amazon Delivery Station in Chicago. As a driver, Echevarria provided insight into the tasks and knowledge needed to excel at the job. In her opinion, employees are skilled workers who deserve proper safety and respect. This includes the need for better compensation and the items needed to perform their jobs, which Echevarria said Amazon has failed to provide.

Rosenblum said the inability to provide proper items and compensation is not a funding issue. He explained that Amazon reported $13.5 billion in profits in the second quarter of 2024 and believes that it can easily afford to pay workers what they deserve. Rosenblum also questioned the motive behind the employer’s issue with the workers' wage demands. 

Finally, Echevarria discussed the unified efforts as workers nationwide continue to fight for a first contract at Amazon. She said a good contract could guarantee the workers will receive the compensation they deserve. Both Echevarria and Rosenblum feel that collective action, like a national, coordinated fight, is the only way to stand up to the corporate giant and earn their first contract.

For more information on the ongoing contract negotiations at Amazon, please listen to the show above.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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