Amazon is embroiled in a fight with workers at one of its delivery service partners in what union activists say is part of a longstanding anti-union drive by the retail giant which is now facing scrutiny in the US Senate for its anti-labor rights practices.
At Battle Tested Strategies, an Amazon delivery service partner in Palmdale, California, workers are currently fighting Amazon’s intent to terminate the delivery service partner’s contract on Saturday.
That matters because the 84 drivers and dispatchers at BTS became the first in Amazon’s network to unionize in the US in April among the company’s roughly 3,000 delivery service partners. Workers are now engaged in an unfair labor practice strike to demand Amazon bargain with the union, rather than simply terminate the contract.
In 2017, a similar issue occurred when drivers at an Amazon delivery service partner in Michigan unionized: Amazon cut the delivery service partner’s contract before the workers secured a first union contract.
The California workers approved a contract with their delivery service provider in April. Delivery drivers at Amazon work for independent contractors, small businesses that are contracted in Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner Program, wearing Amazon-branded uniforms and driving Amazon-branded delivery vans or trucks.
Heath Lopez has worked as a driver for Amazon since September 2020, and explained he became involved in the union organizing effort that began in summer 2022 over extreme heat conditions, and that workers were pushing for better pay, benefits and working conditions.
He explained Amazon tracks drivers through cameras in the vehicles, monitoring systems on their routes and will tell their dispatchers to contact them if they are falling behind on a delivery route. Lopez described the delivery vans as a “sauna” in hot weather.
“We can park in the shade all we want, even in the hottest of heat, we can open up all the doors, it still feels like it’s a sauna in there,” he said.
In vehicles with air conditioning, Lopez said it worked poorly in blowing cold air or bringing down the temperature in the vehicle, and recounted an instance where he burned himself on a metal rack in a van when his arm touched it while retrieving a package because of how hot the metal was.
Raj Singh, who has been working as a driver delivering packages for Amazon for more than two years, noted where they work is a desert, frequently exposing workers to extreme heat, with the cargo areas of the vans often reaching 130F (54C).
“Once you get into that back cargo area, it’s literally like walking into an oven where we immediately start sweating. There have been points in time where I’ve actually seen spots while being back there looking for a package,” said Singh.
Singh said they are provided water bottles but are limited to two 16oz water bottles provided for a 10-hour shift, which he said is inadequate for the heat they regularly work in.
Amazon claimed air conditions were the responsibility of delivery service partners, that the company had invested in heat mitigation supplies, worked with delivery service partners to provide extra cooling breaks to drivers and claimed, “we ask that any driver who feels impacted by the heat to immediately stop work and seek help”.
Lopez, Singh and their co-workers also walked off the job on 15 June to pressure Amazon to bargain with the workers’ union.
“Amazon is still in the works trying to terminate us. But at the same time, we’re still hanging strong, we’re still in this fight, we’re keeping the pressure on them,” said Lopez. “We’re going to keep fighting and we’re not going to stop fighting. And I want Amazon to know that we will never stop fighting until we get what’s right for us and future drivers.”
Singh added they organized to get better pay because workers are struggling and living paycheck to paycheck.
“They’re not recognizing us to even attempt to give us our fair pay,” added Singh. “We’re still fighting for our safe jobs and our fair pay, regardless of anything that they attempt to do to us for standing strong and staying together.”
They are now in the midst of a push to force Amazon to bargain with them as a joint employer and sign on to the contract after they successfully unionized with the Teamsters, who have argued due to Amazon’s control over delivery service providers, the company needs to bargain as well.
The union filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over Amazon’s refusal to bargain and requested expedited injunctive relief to prevent Amazon from terminating the contract until at least the charges are resolved.
“Anything less will lead to a shutdown causing irreparable harm to unionized employees, the Union, and the collective-bargaining process, and will chill hundreds of thousands of Amazon DSP workers across the country from exercising their Section 7 rights, in a true miscarriage of justice,” wrote attorneys representing the Teamsters to the NLRB in May 2023. The NLRB did not respond to a request for comment.
The DSP owner, Johnathan Ervin, told Wired that he attended a union avoidance training conducted by Amazon in August 2022 after his workers had begun organizing to push for heat protection on the job, where he claimed Amazon said his contract would be canceled if his workers unionized.
Amazon said DSP owners were not forced to go to anti-union training and do not retaliate for union organization.
A spokesperson for Amazon said in an email: “Whether the Teamsters are being intentionally misleading or they just don’t understand our business, the narrative they’re spreading is false. This group of individuals do not work for Amazon. Our delivery network is made up of thousands of independently owned and operated small businesses who provide delivery services for our company. Battle-Tested Strategies hasn’t been truthful about the viability of its business or future of work for its drivers – they’ve had a track record of failing to perform and will no longer deliver for Amazon as of 25 June, information that has been known by the DSP since April 14th.”
They did not provide further comment on what happens to the workers’ jobs when the contract is terminated.
This fight of delivery drivers against Amazon is one of several currently facing the company over unionization efforts and safety.
The first Amazon warehouse to win a union election in the US in Staten Island, New York, is still fighting to get Amazon to begin bargaining with the union as numerous unfair labor practice charges are currently being processed at the National Labor Relations Board.
Charges over the rerun union election that took place in early 2022 in Bessemer, Alabama, are still being reviewed by the board, and other groups of workers organizing at Amazon sites have pending charges filed with the board. Judge and board rulings made so far related to these organizing efforts have ruled Amazon violated labor laws in their opposition to them.
The US Department of Justice and Osha have been conducting investigations over Amazon’s high injury rates and safety issues since 2022. On 20 June, Senator Bernie Sanders announced a Senate investigation into Amazon’s high injury rates and working conditions.
Jennifer Crane, an Amazon picker at a warehouse in St Louis, said in a statement in response to Sanders’ announcement. “I want workers everywhere to know that Senator Sanders’ investigation into safety at Amazon is happening because we have spoken up, marched, and even gone on strike over the need for lower rates and better safety standards. Amazon has the resources and ingenuity to run the safest warehouses in the world, and it’s time for Congress to hold the company to that standard.”
On the Senate floor, Sanders on 20 June also criticized Amazon’s union opposition.
“Major corporations all over this country are taking unprecedented and illegal actions against workers who are fighting for economic justice. That is why major corporations like Starbucks and Amazon have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on union-busting campaigns and anti-union law firms. They would rather spend millions to break unions than provide decent wages and benefits for their employees,” he said.
An Amazon spokesperson said in an email: “We’ve reviewed the letter and strongly disagree with Senator Sanders’ assertions,” claiming they had appealed all the citations referenced that the company had made progress in reducing injuries and that the SOC injury data was misleading.