EXCLUSIVE — Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said that Amazon is his union’s biggest opponent and a “white-collar crime syndicate.”
O’Brien cast the fight against the e-commerce giant over the past few years as critical for the Teamsters in a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Examiner in his office near Capitol Hill.
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O’Brien, who was born in raised in Massachusetts in a family of Teamsters, mentioned a story from the Boston Globe that just over 2,400 Amazon employees are recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which he sees as evidence of the corporation not doing enough for their workers.
“And when you look at Amazon, a tycoon — I call them a white-collar crime syndicate, a corporate white-collar crime syndicate — in Massachusetts alone, like 2,400 of their employees are on SNAP benefits, right?” O’Brien said. “And that’s a f***ing embarrassment.”
“So if that’s 2,400 Massachusetts, what do you think it is nationwide? That should just demonstrate how bad they are,” he added.
He also accused Amazon of exploiting distressed communities.
“So yeah, they are the worst,” O’Brien said. “And unfortunately, they keep growing, and they are in more than parcel delivery, they’re in more than the cloud, they’re just emerging as a behemoth that is going to destroy working class if we don’t fight.”
Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hards pushed back on O’Brien’s remarks in a statement.
“The Teamsters continue to mislead the public with false claims and illegal tactics — including threatening and intimidating workers — to coerce people into joining them, which is why there are multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” Hards said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The fact is we already provide much of what the Teamsters are requesting including safe & inclusive workplaces, competitive pay, health benefits on day one, and opportunities for career growth.”
During the interview, O’Brien also discussed the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and its potential to reorient the workforce.
O’Brien said that the technology could reduce the demand for certain white-collar jobs to the advantage of blue-collar workers, whom the Teamsters represent.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is one of the oldest and most powerful unions in the U.S. Founded in 1903, it represents freight drivers, warehouse workers, and workers in several other occupations across the country.
O’Brien predicted that the AI wave will wipe out a whole tranche of jobs for which a college degree is necessary, and cause a boost for trade schools.
“Let’s be realistic … AI can’t swing a hammer, unclog a toilet, or wire a house,” he said. “So you’re going to see more people going into the trades, going into blue-collar industries that can’t be replaced by technology or AI.”
He said there might be union growth as a result.
The share of workers who are union members dropped to 9.9% in 2024, continuing a gradual decline that has been playing out for years. But O’Brien predicted that trend might not continue into the future. He pointed out public support for labor unions.
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“So, although there has been a decline, I think you’re going to see an incline at some point in time,” he said. “I know we’re growing.”
O’Brien also said that his specific union, the Teamsters, has grown by some 90,000 in the past three and a half years and is continuing to grow.