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Striking Amazon and Starbucks employees have returned to work amid a busy holiday season, but the Teamsters union representing the Amazon drivers said tensions still persist.

The Teamsters Union began striking Dec. 19 at seven Amazon facilities nationwide, alleging that the company disregarded the Dec. 15 deadline it had set for contract negotiations. The strike affected at least 200 facilities nationwide, but Teamsters only represents 7,000 Amazon drivers, which make up less than 1% of the total workforce.

Amazon said the strike did not affect holiday operations, and the drivers ended the strike on Christmas Eve. 

“Make no mistake the Teamsters will never let up and workers will never stop fighting for their rights at Amazon,” a union representative said in a statement, reported by CNN. “Stay tuned.”

Amazon also does not consider the delivery drivers to be part of its workforce, even though they only deliver Amazon products that were purchased online, and wear Amazon uniforms. Instead, the company said they are contractors who are hired via third-party companies.

“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel previously said. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal.”

The Starbucks strike began on Friday and lasted five days, according to News Nation. It expanded to 10 cities, including Denver, Pittsburgh, and Columbus, Ohio, though it impacted a fraction of the 16,000 locations nationwide. 

Starbucks Workers United said it had been protesting because the company failed to “bring viable economic proposals to the bargaining table and to resolve hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges,” and failed to reach a labor agreement with them as promised this year.

The biggest sticking point has been on pay increases, where Starbucks has offered to give unionized baristas a 1.5% pay every year, even if non-union employees do not get a raise. But the union wants a 64% pay raise for hourly employees immediately and 77% over the next tree years, according to the Associated Press. 

The Starbucks strike did not severly impact the majority of the company’s stores nationwide. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.