The news
Amazon warehouse workers at the SWF1 facility in Rock Tavern, New York, went on strike on September 29, 2026, over what they call unsafe conditions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said. The union described the walkout as an unfair labor practice strike against Amazon (AMZN).
According to the Teamsters, workers want an end to dangerous conveyor belt speeds, to managers neglecting reports of substandard conditions, and to what they call unfair productivity write-ups. The union said employees sort and search for items in aisles strewn with packages and have to dodge falling parcels, and that Amazon's labor-sharing policy moves people into other departments without proper training.
The union also alleged that when workers raised safety concerns on Amazon's internal Voice of the Associate message board, the company deleted their posts instead of fixing the problems. Javier Rivera, an SWF1 worker quoted by the union, said that if Amazon won't listen on the floor, "we will force it to listen to us on the street."
The union's announcement did not say how many workers joined the strike, how long it would last, or whether the Teamsters are seeking formal recognition at SWF1. It did not include a response from Amazon, and no Amazon statement on the strike appeared in the sources reviewed for this article.
An unfair labor practice strike is a walkout to protest an employer's alleged violations of labor law, as opposed to a strike over wages. That label carries weight. According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), workers who strike to protest an employer's unfair labor practices can be neither discharged nor permanently replaced, and they are generally entitled to their jobs back when the strike ends.
It follows another Teamsters strike at an Amazon warehouse earlier in the month. On September 2, members of Teamsters Local 1932 staged a one-day unfair labor practice strike at DJT6 in Riverside, California, which the union calls Amazon's largest warehouse facility in the nation. The union said those workers joined it in December 2025 and that Amazon has not recognized or bargained with it.
The numbers
- SWF1 strike start (per Teamsters)
- September 29, 2026
- Earlier DJT6 one-day strike
- September 2, 2026
- SWF1 injury rate in 2022 (per Teamsters)
- 6.3 per 100 full-time workers
- Teamsters membership
- More than 1.3 million
Why CEOs should care
Sellers and brands that depend on Amazon's logistics network should treat this as a watch item rather than a crisis. The union has not said how many people walked out or for how long, so the effect on shipments is unknown. Still, with the holiday season approaching, it is a good moment to check how concentrated your inventory is in a few fulfillment centers and to watch for inbound or delivery delays in the New York region.
Operations and HR leaders at any company running warehouses should notice what the SWF1 workers are complaining about: conveyor speeds, productivity write-ups and safety reports that go nowhere. These are measurable, fixable issues. Ask how your own quotas are set and explained, how fast safety reports get a documented response, and whether any internal feedback channel removes complaints rather than resolving them.
Boards should understand why unions choose the unfair labor practice label. Under NLRB rules, workers striking over unfair labor practices cannot be permanently replaced, which limits an employer's ability to hire around a walkout. Short, targeted strikes at key sites, repeated through a peak season, can create steady operational and reputational pressure even when each one is small.
The bigger picture
SWF1 has a history of organizing. Workers there, calling themselves SWF1United, held a practice picket with Teamsters support on Cyber Monday, November 27, 2023, according to the union and Hudson Valley Country. At the time, the Teamsters said SWF1 workers were injured in 2022 at a rate of 6.3 per 100 full-time workers, higher than the national average for warehouses.
The Teamsters are pressing Amazon with short strikes at individual sites. The union said the DJT6 action brought one of Amazon's key hubs to a 24-hour stop, and claimed that earlier in 2026 it forced Amazon to concede at the NLRB that it would no longer retaliate against workers who strike. Amazon has not publicly confirmed that characterization in the sources reviewed.
What’s next
The next signals are an Amazon response, whether the SWF1 strike extends beyond its first day, and any new unfair labor practice charges filed with the NLRB. With the holiday shopping season ahead, a third site joining the pattern would show whether the Teamsters can turn one-off walkouts into sustained pressure.
What “Fact-checked” means
Fact-checking means testing a story’s facts against the evidence before it is published. This story went through at least two separate checks before this version was published.
- What we checked
- Its names, figures, dates, job titles, quotes and who said what were checked against the story’s sources, including its main source where it could be opened. The headline was checked for accuracy and overstatement.
- How
- A first check reviewed the whole story. If it passed, a second, skeptical check went back to the sources to look for mistakes in the most important facts. If a check flagged the story, it was edited to fix the problems found, and a separate re-check then reviewed the whole story again.
- Who
- The checks are made by our newsroom, as steps kept separate from the writing, under rules set by our editor, Hussein Mukhtar. A story the checks still flag is held for the editor, who decides whether it is fixed, published or dropped.
- If something is wrong
- “Fact-checked” does not mean error-free. If a material error is found after publication, we correct the story and add a note saying what changed. Report an error
Companies in this story
