The largest Amazon warehouse in the state served as the backdrop for a labor protest on Wednesday as unions expanded their national push to organize workers at the e-commerce giant.

Delivery workers represented by Teamsters Local 396 protested starting at 4 p.m. at Windsor's BDL4 Amazon fulfillment center at 1215 Kennedy Road. Picketers blocked two entrances to the Amazon warehouse on Kennedy Road, asking passing trucks to honk, urging workers to unionize and shouting insults about Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.

"If you can pay for the girlfriend's new lips, you can pay your employees," one organizer shouted in a bullhorn.

Amazon's media relations contacts did not respond to a request for comment on the picket line and allegations of unfair labor practices as of Wednesday at 5 p.m.

"We're really just trying to raise awareness in the state of Connecticut to give Amazon workers a fair shake, you know, a better paying wage and safer working conditions and respect and dignity on the shop floor," said Patrick Leonard, an organizer in the Teamsters' Amazon division.

Workers in all of Amazon's 16 facilities in the state have reached out to union leaders about organizing, said Tony Lepore, principal officer of Teamsters Local 671 in Bloomfield. Many complain of low wages, dangerous conditions and lack of breaks.

"I feel more confident as the campaign goes on," Lepore said of the unionization effort. He added that Amazon was a tough opponent. "They have an awful lot of money. They know how to violate labor laws ‒ they can stretch this out. If you have the money you could do that."

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal joined the picket line in the blistering heat, classing Amazon with Boeing as a company with a declining reputation among lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

"My colleagues are fed up with a corporate epic that puts profits ahead of people," Blumenthal said. "They're giving all corporations, big corporations a bad name, but Amazon is literally the prime offender."

The picketing workers were joined by two members of Teamsters Local 396 from Palmdale, Calif., who organized with the Teamsters last year and bargained for a contract with Battle-Tested Strategies, an Amazon "Delivery Service Partner." Amazon itself refused to recognize the contract and "has instead engaged in dozens of unfair labor practices in violation of federal labor law, including terminating the entire unit of newly organized workers," according to the union statement.

Deion Steppe, one of the fired California workers, walked the picket line in Windsor on Wednesday and spoke of Amazon drivers' struggles with extreme heat and tight deadlines. "There have been many cases of dehydration, many cases of heatstroke," Steppe said. In the wake of the company's actions in Palmdale, the Teamsters launched a strike in June 2023 and have since expanded their picket to over 30 Amazon warehouses in 10 states, according to the union.

The union representing Amazon workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y., voted earlier this month to join the Teamsters as an "autonomous" local union with the same rights and duties as a standard chapter.

Occupying 3.8 million square feet in Windsor near Bradley Airport, the BDL4 Amazon facility employed 3,000 people six months after its October 2022 opening and was slated to add 1,500 more, according to the company.

As of last summer, Amazon said it employed more than 15,000 full- and part-time workers in Connecticut and had invested over $6 billion in the state including infrastructure and compensation.

As of December, the e-commerce giant had opened 15 facilities in Connecticut since its first distribution center launched in 2015 in Windsor. Amazon.comLLC's property in Windsor alone had an assessed value of $132 million on the town's 2023 Grand List.