Amazon Doubled Its Union-Busting Budget. Meet Some Amazon Teamsters Fighting Back.

Amazon is scared of its workforce and just blew $26.6 million proving it.

Amazon was recently forced to disclose how much it spent on external union busters in 2025. At least in terms of what it’s willing or able to publicly reveal, Amazon admitted to doubling its union-busting budget to over $26.6 million.

This is just the amount Amazon spent on outside firms whose sole purpose is to erode the rights of American workers. The full cost of Amazon’s union busting — including overpaid in-house lawyers and consultants — is certainly several times greater.

Amazon’s anti-labor C-suite has and will continue to make benign excuses for why they burn so much money undermining workers. These millionaires and billionaires want to downplay their aggressive tactics to silence American workers and manufacture an artifice that Amazon is a decent employer.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Amazon is the most anti-union, anti-worker company in the United States.

Sure, for a multitrillion-dollar enterprise, handing tens of millions to contractors to tell your employers how bad wage guarantees and workplace safety are is a drop in their slop bucket. But the new reality that Amazon is spending far more on combatting union organizing drives than any other American company is shockingly revealing. It suggests Amazon’s increased investments are backfiring.

All this union busting is actually fueling worker militancy across America. Every day, more and more Amazon workers are speaking with, rallying alongside of, and signing up to become Teamsters. People of all ages and backgrounds are fighting back and demanding better for themselves and their families.

So, who are these folks staring down Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy for equity and respect at work? Let’s start meeting some Amazon Teamsters…

Janee Roberts and Josh Black work at Amazon’s DCK6 warehouse in San Francisco. They both played instrumental roles in leading their facility to unionize with the Teamsters in October 2024.

Since then, they’ve seen Amazon’s union-busting attorneys and HR consultants pop up at DCK6. Unannounced. Uninvited. Unwanted.

“When we demanded recognition as Teamsters, we saw an immediate and extreme response from Amazon. We had probably three times as many managers in our building,” Josh said. “They came in from all over America. All of them clearly had experience with union busting. And they had a shared goal to try to turn us against the Teamsters.”

When the union busters came in, management got more aggressive. Bosses terminated worker organizers for no reason. They held mandatory captive audience meetings behind closed doors. They interrogated and intimidated workers about their union activity.

Janee, Josh, and their co-workers knew this was unacceptable. They marched into the office where the union busters were operating and confronted them about their illegal tactics.

“It’s just sad they spend all this money trying to stop us from exercising our rights as American workers and becoming Teamsters. But their games didn’t work,” Janee said. “We’re still strong. We’re still facing them head on. We still have the power. And that’s not going to change.”

Amazon’s KSBD Air Hub in San Bernardino, Calif., is key to the company’s operations. Every day, 1,400 workers like Gaspar Diaz handle a massive volume of packages that are shipped to and from each corner of the country.

In 2024, KSBD workers kicked off an energetic drive to organize with the Teamsters. When the campaign went public and momentum mounted, the multitrillion-dollar corporation brought in union busters to try and stomp out the workers’ militancy.

The union busters started quietly. They lurked in the background. They asked casual questions meant to get workers to drop their guard. But eventually they became more aggressive. They put together “informational” meetings but were really anti-union propaganda sessions. They distributed literature full of falsehoods about the Teamsters. Gaspar and his co-workers saw through the spin and directly challenged Amazon’s lies.

“There was one union buster in particular who used to be in a union himself. His union contract let him support his family and gave him a pension that he still draws to this day. I told him to his face that he was wrong for trying to stop us from getting the same fair treatment for ourselves and our families,” Gaspar said. “It turned out he failed to file the right paperwork disclosing his union busting. We filed an unfair labor practice charge and stormed into management’s office to demand he leave the facility. That same day he disappeared. He came back two weeks later — just in time to see us officially join the Teamsters. He hasn’t been back since.”

Brendan Radtke has driven out of Amazon’s DBK4 facility in Queens, N.Y., for three years. Like countless other Amazon drivers, he experienced the company’s neglect and mistreatment firsthand: broken vans, faulty equipment, and favoritism.

That dissatisfaction led Brendan to have conversations with Teamsters at UPS about the benefits of strong union representation. On the heels of those discussions and after months of intense organizing, he and his co-workers boldly unionized with the Teamsters in 2024.

Amazon has since illegally refused to bargain with the Teamsters. They’ve brought in union busters with sketchy backgrounds to antagonize the workforce. In just one example of the nasty tactics Amazon has used, a union buster caused a dispute with a rank-and-filer and escalated it further by using homophobic slurs. Amazon then wrongfully suspended the victimized Teamster, falsely casting blame on the worker.

Brendan and dozens of his co-workers took direct action to push back against this aggression. They went to management and demanded not only that the union buster be booted from the facility but also that their wrongfully disciplined colleague be reinstated. Amazon was left with no choice but to meet their demands. They sent the union buster packing and gave the Teamster back pay for the suspended time.

“It’s expensive for Amazon to bring in these union busters from across the country,” Brendan said. “The money they’re spending shows that they know we’re a threat to their exploitative business model. They’re trying to stop it. It only fuels the energy behind our movement.”

The Teamsters Union proudly represents over 10,000 Amazon drivers and warehouse workers nationwide. Every day, grassroots enthusiasm to unionize with the Teamsters continues to grow.

Are you an Amazon worker? Have you seen union-busting on the job? Share them in the comments below — and stayed tuned to Just Cause for more stories on real rank-and-file Amazon Teamsters.