Labor prosecutors are challenging Amazon’s long-running claim that it doesn’t employ the massive network of drivers who deliver its packages across the country.
A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board has determined that Amazon is really a “joint employer” alongside one of its delivery contractors, an agency spokesperson said Thursday. The director also found that the e-commerce giant broke the law by making illegal threats, holding anti-union “captive audience” meetings and refusing to bargain with workers.
Although the case involves just one firm that Amazon contracted with in California, it has big implications for Amazon’s labor model in the U.S.
Even though Amazon delivery drivers work out of Amazon-branded vans and wear Amazon-branded uniforms, the company has long maintained that they don’t actually work for Amazon but for one of its contracted firms, known as a “delivery service partner” (DSP). If Amazon doesn’t employ the drivers, then it isn’t responsible for meeting wage and safety standards or bargaining with those who want a union.
A finding that Amazon is a “joint employer” alongside its DSP could make the company responsible for any labor law violations and, in theory, force it to the bargaining table.
The case is still in its early stages and could eventually go before the five-member labor board in Washington.
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The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has argued that Amazon should have to recognize a union it formed at Battle-Tested Strategies, a former Amazon contractor in Palmdale, California. Amazon dropped its contract with the firm last year, right around the time an organizing push was underway among dozens of drivers and dispatchers.
The union praised the NLRB regional director’s finding that Amazon is a joint employer, calling it “groundbreaking.” The union said in a statement that Amazon wielded “absolute control over the drivers’ terms and conditions of employment,” despite its claims to the contrary.
“The Teamsters are confident the NLRB’s regional determination for the Palmdale workers will extend to Amazon DSP drivers who unionize nationwide,” the union said.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the Teamsters “continue to misrepresent what is happening here.” She noted that the regional director didn’t find merit in several of the union’s other claims of lawbreaking by Amazon.
“As we have said all along, there is no merit to the Teamsters’ claims. If and when the agency decides it wants to litigate the remaining allegations, we expect they will be dismissed as well,” said the spokesperson, Eileen Hards.
Amazon has around 3,000 DSPs across the country. The Teamsters say the Palmdale DSP was the first to petition for a union and try to negotiate a contract.
Unions have struggled for years to organize Amazon’s logistics network. Workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York City voted in March 2022 to join a new independent labor group, the Amazon Labor Union, but still don’t have a contract with the company. Those workers recently affiliated with the Teamsters, which has more than a million members and is one of the largest unions in the country.