“The Teamsters request to the National Labor Relations Board to review Amazon’s decision to cut off BTS as a contractor-right before BTS recognized the union-poses the critical question: Can Amazon have it both ways?” Weil wrote. In response, the Teamsters filed unfair labor practice charges in May. The Teamsters argue that Amazon is a joint employer with BTS, and therefore has to bargain, but Amazon has refused to recognize the union or come to the negotiating table. “As the sole source of deliveries, Amazon controls key aspects of what BTS does as a contractor.” “Amazon wants to have it both ways: total operational control but no employment responsibility,” wrote employment scholar David Weil in an email to Labor Notes. After BTS recognized the union, Amazon announced on April 24 that it would cancel its contract with BTS on June 24.
Since Amazon sets the pay for DSPs, BTS couldn’t implement a raise without its approval.
#Amazon strike union drivers
It decrees from what vendor a DSP must lease the Amazon-branded vans, and even dictates the drivers’ uniforms.Īmazon controls how many water bottles workers can take with them, and monitors to ensure they make the required 400 stops per day.īTS voluntarily recognized the union and agreed to a contract that would hike wages to $30 an hour by September, compared to the $19.75 drivers were earning before. AMAZON DICTATESĪmazon sets workers’ hours, wage floors, routes, and the number of packages they must deliver.
#Amazon strike union full
They are Amazon delivery drivers, but they were nominally employed by an Amazon contractor, the Southern California company Battle-Tested Strategies.īTS, with 84 drivers, is one of Amazon’s 2,500 delivery service partners (DSPs)-contractors who carry out the package deliveries, even while Amazon retains full control. “I am no longer Bezos’ Bozo!” Diaz said over honks and chants from 200 Teamsters from six different locals and some labor allies at a picket line outside an Amazon warehouse in northern New Jersey July 6.ĭiaz and her co-workers voted to join Teamsters Local 396 in April. “He said the difference is UPS is union, Amazon is not. Brandi Diaz was at a customer’s door in Palmdale, California, delivering stuff for Amazon, when the customer asked her, “What’s the difference between you and UPS drivers?”
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