September 25th 2023.
Amazon has been making efforts to prevent its drivers, who are labeled as contract workers, from being classified as employees. This is to discourage them from unionizing under the Teamsters contract, which could be a costly move.
The Teamsters have negotiated a record-setting deal that has made UPS drivers significantly more money than Amazon drivers, and they deliver fewer packages each day than Amazon drivers. This has caught the attention of many of Amazon's drivers. Jordan Talmon, a 24-year-old Amazon Delivery Service Partner (DSP) driver, was unimpressed by his employer’s wage increase from $17 to $18 an hour. He said, “It’s a dollar raise. I wasn’t really that excited about it, honestly. Seems kind of pitiful compared to UPS.”
Because Amazon subcontracts out its drivers, they are unable to unionize collectively. However, some workers have joined the Amazon Labor Union, and the Teamsters have an Amazon Division with the goal of establishing a union. Randy Korgan, director of the Teamsters Amazon Division, commented, “Amazon has a level of responsibility that they’re trying to escape here.”
In April, a group of 84 California-based Amazon drivers and dispatchers who joined the Teamsters union negotiated a deal to raise their pay from $20 an hour to $30 an hour. This deal only applies to that group of workers, and is contingent upon Amazon renewing its contract with BTS.
Unionizing against Amazon has been difficult, as the company uses around 3,000 subcontractors. To avoid any possible retaliation from Amazon, some subcontractors are hesitant to negotiate with the Teamsters. However, some drivers, like Talmon and Hunter Deaver, are still looking for better opportunities outside of Amazon. Deaver said, “I think it puts Amazon in this situation where they’re going to have to decide if they want to keep quality drivers or not.”
The future of Amazon drivers ultimately depends on how labor law interprets Amazon’s relationship with its delivery drivers and its DSPs. Benjamin Sachs, a labor professor at Harvard Law School, expressed concern that labor law could fail in this case. He said, “If Amazon is able to get away with ignoring the workers’ decision and hiding behind the subcontractor relationships, then I’m afraid we’ll have yet another story of the failure of American labor law.”
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