About 100 Amazon warehouse workers walked off the job at the company's Riverside delivery station on Wednesday, shutting the facility down for 24 hours in a coordinated push for better pay and working conditions. The walkout marked the first time Teamsters members across different shifts at the site organized a strike together, according to union organizers.
The facility, known as DJT6, sits at 20920 Krameria Avenue on land adjacent to March Air Reserve Base, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. It functions as a delivery station where orders are assembled before being loaded onto vans for last-mile delivery across the Inland Empire, as reported by the San Bernardino Sun. Union organizers describe DJT6 as Amazon's largest warehouse in the nation.
Teamsters Local 1932 member Emmanuel Cadena alleged that Amazon fired a rank-and-file union leader at the Riverside warehouse without cause, and that night-shift and early-morning workers walked out in January in response. Cadena said Amazon has not tried to bargain in any capacity, and alleged the company responded to workers' reasonable demands with illegal intimidation. He also said a majority of the facility's workers support the union, and that employees were speaking up for fair pay and a safer workplace.
Union Says Wednesday's Walkout Was Different
Kain Kazsuk, another worker involved in the action, said Amazon has no respect for the people who keep it running. The report notes that night-shift and early-morning workers had also walked out in 2025 when the Riverside union effort was first announced, and that Teamsters Local 1932 organized workers at DJT6 and signed union authorization cards there in December of that year.
Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson pushed back hard on the union's framing, calling the demonstration an illegal effort to intimidate workers, block facility entry and exit, and interfere with operations. Amazon alleged the protest was initiated and attended mostly by outside organizers rather than DJT6 employees themselves. The company also maintains that the Teamsters are not the certified bargaining representative at any Amazon facility, per the same report.
Amazon Points to Pay and Benefits Investments
Amazon said it increased its average base hourly wage to over $23 in 2025 and provided average total compensation of $30 per hour once benefits are included. The company has said it invested $1 billion in 2025 to raise pay and lower health-care costs, cutting employee health-care contributions by about 34% and slashing co-pays by 87% to $5, or $5 per week for entry-level costs. Amazon's benefits package also includes paid parental leave, pre-paid tuition assistance, immediate health care for full-time employees, and a 401(k) match, the company has said.
On safety, Amazon says its global lost time incident rate has improved 70% since 2019 and its global recordable incident rate has improved 43% over the same period. The company maintains it provides safe and inclusive workplaces, competitive pay, health benefits on day one, and career-growth opportunities. Amazon management said it would provide optional anti-union information after staff meetings, according to the article.
Federal Labor Rulings Loom Over the Dispute
The Teamsters allege Amazon has ignored federal labor law requiring contract negotiations with workers at the last-mile facility. That claim follows a broader pattern: in March 2026, the National Labor Relations Board mediated an agreement securing Amazon's commitment not to retaliate against workers exercising their right to strike, after mediating discussions concerning the company's past abuse of its attendance policy during walkouts, according to the Teamsters Union. Separately, an NLRB administrative law judge ruled in June 2026 that Amazon must recognize and bargain with the Teamsters at its DCK6 delivery station in San Francisco under the board's Cemex precedent, after a majority of workers there signed authorization cards, per OnLabor.
DJT6 became the fifth Southern California Amazon facility to organize with the Teamsters in December 2025, joining the KSBD Air Hub in San Bernardino, DFX4 in Victorville, DAX5 in City of Industry, and DAX8 in Palmdale. Workers at the San Bernardino Air Hub had picketed outside their workplace in 2024, alleging unfair labor practices and major safety issues by Amazon. The Riverside campaign itself traces back to an early-morning walkout on December 16, 2025, during Amazon's peak holiday shipping rush, when warehouse associates reportedly faced mandatory overtime that extended shifts to nine hours a day, six days a week, according to ie community news.
A Regional Economy Built on Warehouses
The stakes extend well beyond one facility. Transportation and warehousing operations across Riverside and San Bernardino counties employ over 200,000 workers, or nearly 1 in 15 of all employed residents in the Inland Empire, according to UCR News. Yet warehouse workers in the region earn roughly 75% of the regional average wage, with median personal earnings trailing California's statewide average by about $5,000 annually, per the same UCR research. According to the University of California, Riverside, the average non-supervisory warehouse worker earns $44,776, roughly 75% of the average for Inland Empire workers. Research from the Inland Empire Labor and Community Center at the University of California, Riverside, found that unionization positively impacts workers’ wages and access to employment-related benefits, including health insurance.
Amazon is the second-largest private employer in both counties, operating more than 40 regional facilities and employing over 30,000 local workers, according to Matthews Real Estate Investment Services. Independent Delivery Service Partners working out of DJT6, including Leading Edge Logistix and Patriot Logistics Services, advertise starting pay between $22.50 and $23.50 per hour for delivery drivers, separate from Amazon's own warehouse workforce. Wednesday's shutdown at DJT6 lasted 24 hours, though it remains unclear how much disruption reached the facility's last-mile delivery routes, and whether the NLRB will issue formal complaints over the alleged termination of the union leader are both open questions.
