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Amazon Drivers in Queens Go Public with Union Fight


Hundreds of delivery drivers based out of DBK4, a warehouse in Maspeth, Queens, delivered union authorization cards to Amazon management on Monday. They are demanding that Amazon recognize their move to join the Teamsters union, and that the company meet them at the bargaining table. This comes in the midst of organizing escalations by Amazon drivers and warehouse workers across the country.


Pola Posen 

September 17, 2024

LEFT VOICE

On Monday morning, hundreds of Amazon delivery drivers in Maspeth, Queens, marched on management with signed union authorization cards. The cards represent proof that a majority of drivers — who are contracted to work for Amazon through three “delivery service partners” (DSP) — support joining the Teamsters union. “We are a union!” the drivers chanted.

Drivers are fighting for higher wages, better working conditions, and against overwhelming routes with excessive packages. As a driver said on Monday to their managers: “these routes are inhumane.” They are joining the fight to have a union and they want to be recognized as what they are: Amazon workers.

The struggle for Amazon driver recognition has accelerated since last April, when drivers at a DSP in Palmdale, California voted to unionize. Because the drivers were considered employees of the DSP rather than of Amazon, Amazon simply cut the contract with the DSP rather than recognizing the drivers.

In response, the Teamsters union brought the case to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), arguing that Amazon is a joint employer of the drivers. The NLRB affirmed this argument in August, laying the groundwork for Amazon drivers’ legal legitimacy in bargaining with the company. Earlier this month, drivers in Atlanta, Georgia also won recognition from the NLRB that Amazon is their joint employer.

Drivers pick up the packages at Amazon facilities, drive vans with the Amazon logo, and use Amazon devices to track the packages. Not recognizing drivers as Amazon workers is open labor fraud. Amazon tries to cut every corner to advance in the flexibilization and precarization of work. It’s also a tool to divide workers and make unionization harder.

You may be interested in: Amazon Labor Union Affiliates With Teamsters: What Does This Mean for Amazon Workers and the Labor Movement?

Amazon is scared. Last Thursday, threatened by the drivers’ fights for unionization, Amazon announced that it would be raising its delivery driver wages by 7%, bumping drivers up to around $22/hour. We saw a similar move from the company this summer in the UK, when Amazon gave warehouse workers a 10 percent raise after successfully union-busting an organizing campaign by a 3,000-worker warehouse outside of Coventry. These raises are an attempt from the company to try to satiate its employees — “you don’t need a union because we give you raises!” But these raises only show Amazon’s desperation. If we can win wage increases through wielding only the whispered threats of our power, it is clear that when we are unified, there is no ceiling to what we can fight for.

It is critical that Amazon workers realize the collective power of warehouse workers and delivery drivers combined. Although the jobs of drivers and inside workers are quite different, no package can be delivered without the labor of both. The behemoth that disciplines our lives is the same. So, drivers must fight for warehouse workers, and warehouse workers must fight for drivers, because our fight is one and the same. Together, organized democratically and from the rank-and-file, we can build the workers’ power necessary to defeat Amazon.

Solidarity with Amazon delivery drivers in Queens who made a stride for the entire movement!