Employees at seven facilities including in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco take action. Plus, Elon Musk sinks congressional spending bill

Good morning – and happy holidays! This is the last First Thing of 2024. We will be back on 2 January.

On Thursday morning, workers at seven Amazon facilities across the country went on strike early during the holiday shopping rush, aiming to pressure the retailer into union contract talks.

What are the details of the dispute? The union had given Amazon a 15 December deadline to begin negotiations and warehouse workers had recently voted to authorize a strike. Teamsters says Amazon “fails to pay its workers enough to make ends meet” and has “pushed workers to the limit”, despite “obscene profits”. The company reported above-expected revenue growth in the third quarter, with revenue of $158.9bn, 11% higher than the same period in 2023.

How disruptive will the strike be? Amazon said it did not expect any effect on its operations during one of the busiest times of the year. Analysts said the company was unlikely to come to the table to bargain as that could open the door to more union actions.

Why? Unions represent only about 1% of the Amazon workforce, with the company – one of America’s largest by market cap – accused of anti-union practices. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos, whose personal wealth Forbes estimates to be $239bn.

What is the debt ceiling? Congress is in charge of setting the debt limit, which currently stands at $31.4tn. This limits the amount of money the government can borrow to pay for services such as social security, Medicare and the military. The debt ceiling has been raised 78 times since 1960, under both Democrat and Republican presidents.

What happens now? Without action from Congress, a government shutdown looms, starting tomorrow at 12.01am.