Amazon workers hit the picket lines

The Street

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and why Amazon is in or a rough holiday season.

Transcript

00:00I'm Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

00:02Here's what we're watching on the street today.

00:04The Dow staged a minor recovery Thursday after the Federal Reserve's interest rate outlook

00:10prompted an 1,100-point drop the day before.

00:13The rest of the market added to losses.

00:16On the bright side, November existing home sales were the strongest since March.

00:21Sales were up 6.1 percent over the past 12 months, which is the best annual gain in nearly

00:27three and a half years.

00:29The median sales price rose to $406,100.

00:34Turning to other business headlines, in what the Teamsters Union calls the biggest-ever

00:39work stoppage at Amazon, seven locations have been hit with a worker's strike.

00:44Drivers at facilities in Queens, Atlanta, San Francisco, a suburb of Chicago, and three

00:50in South California are participating.

00:53Workers are calling on the world's second-largest private employer to come to the bargaining

00:57table.

00:59They complain Amazon's aggressive order fulfillment targets are taking a toll on their health.

01:03The striking workers, however, are just a small fraction of the more than 800,000 employed

01:09by Amazon across 600 locations.

01:13Because of that, the strike is not expected to have a big impact on Amazon's wide distribution

01:18network as the holiday shopping season enters its home stretch.

01:23The strike, however, does represent a growing problem for Amazon.

01:27Worker dissatisfaction.

01:30Even a Senate report sided with workers, saying Amazon is pushing warehouse workers to the

01:34brink, causing a spike in on-the-job injuries.

01:38As a result, Amazon could face fines of up to $100,000 levied by the Occupational Health

01:44and Safety Administration.

01:46Amazon says the data used for the report are misleading and it takes seriously the health

01:51and safety of its workers.

01:54That'll do it for your daily briefing.

01:55From the New York Stock Exchange, I'm Conway Gittins with The Street.

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