A group of Amazon delivery drivers are staging a walkout at the DAX7 Amazon Sortation Center in South Gate. Police have been called in because Amazon vehicles have been ambushed.
Zoe Cranfill | Los Angeles Times |
Amazon A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board said Wednesday that the company should be considered a “joint employer” of some of its contracted delivery drivers.
The NLRB was reviewing two unfair labor practice lawsuits filed in January relating to Amazon's treatment of some drivers at an Atlanta warehouse known as DAT6. Although Amazon has long hired outside drivers to handle its increasing volume of deliveries, the NLRB's regional director found that Amazon employed drivers at the site who worked for a contractor called MJB Logistics.
Amazon has resisted being classified as a joint employer of its sprawling network of contracted delivery companies. Politicians and labor groups, including the Teamsters union, have challenged the company's designation, saying drivers wear Amazon-branded uniforms, drive Amazon-branded delivery trucks, and their work hours and performance expectations are set by the company.
The NLRB's decision could force Amazon to negotiate with employees who want to form a union. The announcement comes after an NLRB official made a similar ruling last month, noting that Amazon is a co-employer of some for-hire drivers at its Palmdale, California, plant.
Over the past year, the Teamsters have stepped up efforts to organize Amazon delivery drivers and warehouse workers. The union formed an Amazon division in 2021 to support and fund the company's workers in their organizing efforts. Since then, it has led a series of strikes at Amazon delivery facilities, while a group of workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, New York, voted to merge with the Teamsters in June.
In April 2023, drivers working for Battle Tested Strategies said their contract was terminated by Amazon after they voted to unionize with the Teamsters. Amazon denied the claim, saying it terminated the contract before the union push.
In its decision on Wednesday, the NLRB also found that Amazon threatened Atlanta drivers with closure of their facility if they unionized, made unlawful coercive declarations and created the impression that operations were being monitored.
The NLRB's decisions in Atlanta and Palmdale are not board decisions, Kayla Blado, a spokeswoman for the group, said in an email. Rather, they are the first step for the agency's general counsel to pursue the allegations laid out in an unfair labor practice charge. If the parties do not agree, a hearing will be scheduled before an NLRB judge. Either party can appeal that judge's decision to the NLRB board, and it can be further challenged in federal court.
Amazon declined to comment.
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