CNBC stories that 84 Amazon supply drivers at a California facility “joined the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union stated Monday, in a win for labor organizers which have lengthy sought to realize a foothold on the e-retailer.”
An nameless reader shared this follow-up report from Vox:
[T]hey unanimously ratified the contract, which is able to carry their wages from round $20 presently to $30 by September and would enable them to refuse to do deliveries they think about unsafe. However that victory is a bit difficult… They put on Amazon vests and drive Amazon-branded automobiles, have schedules dictated by Amazon, and might even be fired by Amazon. However they’re technically employed by Battle Examined Methods (BTS), one among roughly 3,000 supply contract firms that make up Amazon’s intensive supply community. BTS voluntarily acknowledged the union after a majority of employees signed union authorization playing cards and negotiated the union contract.
Amazon has advised Vox that its contract with BTS, which solely delivers for Amazon, was terminated “effectively earlier than” employees notified the tech big Monday, however that the contract hasn’t expired but. The union stated that the supply persons are nonetheless working for Amazon and that the contract goes via October, when it usually would auto-renew. What occurs subsequent relies on Amazon, the employees, and the interpretation of outdated US labor regulation… On the crux of the supply driver problem is whether or not Amazon controls sufficient of what the employees do to be thought of a joint employer. “If Amazon is ready to get away with ignoring the employees’ resolution and hiding behind the subcontractor relationships, then I am afraid we’ll have one more story of the failure of American labor regulation,” stated Benjamin Sachs, a labor professor at Harvard Legislation College. “If this results in a recognition that these drivers are Amazon staff, joint staff, then this might be massively vital.”
One aspect of word: These employees organized in California, which has a decrease bar for who is taken into account an worker, and by extension, who enjoys union protections… One other aspect that the Nationwide Labor Relations Board will possible need to determine is whether or not Amazon terminated the contract with BTS with a view to keep away from working with a union, one thing that might be unlawful in the event that they had been thought of staff.
The article additionally notes that elsewhere, 50 YouTube contractors additionally voted to unionize this week.
