Teamsters pilots working for an international courier service announced plans to strike Tuesday, in a move that could put significant strain on the online retailer Amazon.
Deutsche Post DHL oversees five airline carriers that provide shipping and logistic services worldwide. Unionized American pilots working for all five carriers overwhelming voted to strike in a move that could hurt Amazon. Two of the carriers, Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) and Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, recently signed a deal with Amazon to more than double its domestic fleet.
“A pilot strike could also have a significant impact on Amazon,” noted a Teamsters statement. “In March ATSG – which owns ABX – announced an agreement with the e-retailer to operate an air cargo network serving Amazon customers in the United States. Meanwhile, Amazon.com just signed an agreement with Atlas Air to double its fleet for domestic packages.”
ATSG announced its agreement Mar. 9 to lease 20 Boeing 767 freighter aircraft to the Amazon Fulfillment Services for five to seven years. Atlas detailed May 5 that it will lease the online retailer 20 additional freighter aircrafts for a ten year period. The freighters will service U.S. based customers.
“Pilots at Atlas, Southern, Polar, and ABX first called for the strike vote in March as concerns grew out of lingering contract negotiations with their individual carriers,” the Teamsters continued. “Despite these rising profits, the carriers are trying to force pilots into sub-standard contracts that would have a devastating impact by suppressing wages and lowering quality of life issues.”
Nearly 2,000 pilots participated in the vote with 99 percent agreeing a strike is the right move. The vote took place over the course of April and May and provided anonymity to voting pilots. Deutsche is scheduled to hold its annual shareholder meeting in Germany this week. Deutsche doesn’t anticipate the strike will impact its operations.
“We are aware of the ongoing contract negotiations between Teamsters Local 1224 and the respective airlines as well as the union’s strike vote report from May 17,” a Deutsche spokeswomen told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “We can confirm that DHL does not currently anticipate any impact on our operations from these on-going discussions.”
The Teamsters have been negotiating new contracts with all five unions but disagreements have prolonged the entire process. Some pilots, for instance, hope to end wage and benefit concessions which were implemented in response to the 2009 recession.
Amazon and Deutsche did not respond to a request for comment by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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