The Amazon framework, explained | Vox

Delivery workers continued to strike at Amazon facilities in New York City, Illinois, California and Atlanta after launching a strike on Thursday following the company’s refusal to participate in labor contract negotiations.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has organized the workers, although Amazon does not recognize these efforts and claims that the workers are not Amazon employees. (A stance on federal labor watchdog The National Labor Review Board, or NLRB, disagrees.)

The striking workers, who are primarily delivery drivers, are agitating for a contract that provides better wages and working conditions. The Teamsters gave Amazon until Dec. 15 to begin contract negotiations. That did not happen, leading to a strike planned for the week before Christmas as part of a push to bring the company to the bargaining table. It’s one of the largest strikes in Amazon’s history, and it’s not clear how long it will last. And it already has legal ramifications; an Amazon delivery driver and a Teamsters organizer was arrested at a Queens facility Thursday allegedly to disrupt traffic.

“If your package is delayed over the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” says Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement Thursday. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.”

The delivery workers’ strike is part of a larger effort to organize workers, including delivery drivers and warehouse workers, who perform Amazon’s shipping and delivery services. The union battle has been going on for years. In 2022, labor organizers scored their first major victory when an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island voted to organize and formed the Amazon Labor Union. Since then, the Amazon Labor Union joined the Teamsters, which bills itself as the largest union in North America and represents workers from a variety of industries, including transport and healthcare. The Teamsters say the union represents 10,000 Amazon workers.

There is little to suggest that this week’s strike will result in the type of gains Staten Island workers saw in 2022; Amazon has argued that the strike will not harm its operations and denied its validity. And while workers trying to organize at Amazon have scored some victories in cases before the NLRB, that body is expected to undergo major, pro-business changes in the incoming Donald Trump administration. All of which calls into question the success of the striking workers and how the federal government will treat labor in the coming years.

Workers strike to make a statement

It’s not clear how many workers are on strike, but they represent only a fraction of the roughly 800,000 people who make up Amazon’s delivery workforce.

The poor working conditions of Amazon warehouse workers, including injuries and inadequate access to medical care, have been well documented, e.g. a new Senate report. That’s what inspired the first union effort at the Staten Island warehouse.

Drivers and delivery workers say they are also struggling.

“The salary must be better. Health insurance needs to be better,” Thomas Hickman, a Georgia-based delivery worker, told CNN. “We need better working conditions. If we have 400-plus packages, we need someone to be a helper with us, to drive with us.”

This strike is not focused on working conditions or pay and benefits exactly, although that is part of it; it’s what’s called an unfair labor practice strike because Amazon refused to negotiate with the workers by the deadline the Teamsters gave Amazon management. The workers are striking to get the company to negotiate an employment contract that sets out acceptable working conditions, pay, benefits and more. The workers hope to have their rights and benefits spelled out so that they cannot be arbitrarily removed from the company.

The Teamsters maintain that the company is violating labor law by refusing to negotiate a contract.

“In some ways, this is not that unique,” Eric Blanc, professor of labor relations at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations, told Vox. “In many cases, employers will ignore labor laws and refuse to negotiate. Sometimes striking is the way to get them to the table.”

However, Amazon maintains that the striking workers are not even Amazon employees.

“There are many nuances here, but I want to be clear, the Teamsters do not represent any Amazon employees, despite their claims to the contrary,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, told CNN. “This whole narrative is a PR game and the behavior of the Teamsters this past year and this week is illegal.” Vox reached out to Nantel to clarify what actions Amazon believes are illegal, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

According to Amazon, these drivers and delivery workers work for a third-party vendor — what they call a Delivery Service Partner (DSP). But Amazon does not mention the DSPs and advertises these delivery jobs on Amazon websites. Delivery workers drive Amazon vans and wear Amazon uniforms; they deliver Amazon packages, and Amazon “completely dictates the way the third-party company operates,” Rebecca Givan, professor of labor relations at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations, told Vox. “Amazon sets the terms.”

The Teamsters filed unfair labor practice charges against Amazon and one of its California DSPs, Battle Tested Strategies, in 2023, saying Amazon and DSP are joint employers of dozens of delivery workers the Teamsters had organized there. In August of this year, the NLRB ruled that Amazon and Battle Tested Strategies were joint employersand in September a regional director of the NLRB filed a formal complaint against Amazon.

Amazon isn’t likely to back down anytime soon — and the stakes are high

Amazon has “made it very clear that they have no intention of negotiating” with workers, Seth Harris, a senior fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change and former top labor policy adviser to the Biden administration, told Vox.

First and foremost, Amazon’s business model depends on low-cost labor, and it’s easy to replace during periods of high turnover, according to all the labor experts Vox spoke with. Putting a contract in place that guarantees workers certain levels of pay, benefits, and workplace safety runs counter to this model.

Amazon has not recognized the original Amazon Labor Unionthough it is recognized by the NLRB. And they’ve also spent “tens of millions” of dollars over the years on illegal union busting activities, Blanc said, including threatens employees’ pay and benefits if they signed up, removing information about union efforts from a digital notice board, and fire workers for union.

There are federal laws that govern how companies must interact with unions and collective efforts. But there is no real penalty for failing to bargain with workers, Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told Vox.

The NLRB is tasked with adjudicating labor disputes, but Amazon (as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX) have filed lawsuits claiming that the NLRB and the current dispute resolution system are unconstitutional. If the courts rule in favor of Amazon and SpaceX, it could significantly change the way the federal government handles labor disputes.

Therefore, Amazon can just “delay, delay, delay” negotiating a contract with the striking workers, Wheaton said, hoping they will win their case or soon face a Trump administration that is much more antagonistic toward for labor, and an NLRB that is much friendlier to business. President-elect Donald Trump will fill at least two seats on the NRLB, and is expected to select pro-business candidates; however, his choice of labor minister is seen as more pro-labor than expected.

Whatever stance the incoming administration takes, the union push at Amazon, which has only grown over a relatively short period of time, is likely to continue.

“This walkout is a way to make it clear to the company — and the public — that (the push to unionize and negotiate a contract) is not going away,” Blanc said.