Queens pol intros bill to support third-party Amazon drivers

Queens Councilmember Tiffany Cabán introduced a bill that would ban the use of third party delivery drivers and would require corporations like Amazon to hire the workers full time. Photo via Teamsters/X

By Ryan Schwach

A Queens city councilmember proposed legislation this month that would ban Amazon and other companies from using third-party delivery drivers, shielding the company from any responsibility over the drivers’ employment.

The bill has particular relevance in Queens, where drivers for third-party “Delivery Service Partners” deliver packages from Amazon’s Maspeth facility, wear Amazon uniforms and often drive trucks with the company’s logo, but are not given many of the same benefits and protections as full-time workers.

The arrangement allows Amazon to distance itself from the workers, the bill’s backer said.

“When something goes down, Amazon says, ‘Whoa, this is not my employee’,” said the bill’s sponsor, Queens City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán.

The legislator told the Eagle that even though the drivers operate under Amazon’s banners, the company isn’t held responsible when drivers are injured on the job.

“These are workers who want to do their job safely, have no protection, no recourse for arbitration and abuse of discipline, for really impossible work expectations, and are left holding the bag when something bad happens,” she said. “This bill changes that.”

While the bill pertains to all last-mile delivery service partners in the city, Amazon is the “best and biggest example,” the Astoria lawmaker said.

The bill comes just weeks after 100 recently unionized workers lost their jobs when Amazon severed a contract with a third-party company that employed the drivers.

“This bill would make sure that the drivers that you see in these Amazon trucks are directly employed by Amazon, so that they are responsible for what happens and for driver safety and for community safety,” Cabán said. “It protects workers from unfair firings and retaliation when they speak up. It also mandates real safety training through independent groups to make sure workers know their rights and how to stay safe.”

“It gives several enforcement mechanisms to hold Amazon accountable when they don't hold their end of the bargain,” Cabán added.

For former drivers like Brendan Radcke, who lost his job when Amazon cut ties with his company, the bill would be a saving grace.

“It would prevent them from doing what they did,” Radcke told the Eagle.

Radcke said that while companies like Amazon aren’t responsible for the workers in many respects, "everything you do is controlled and monitored by Amazon.”

“When you're loading up the truck, there's Amazon managers that work directly for Amazon that are yelling at you through bull horns, and alarms at you, and calling you out by name, telling you who needs to hurry up,” he said. “When you're on the road…if you fall behind, they're getting in touch with the dispatchers. If you make a mistake on the road, Amazon is the one that can suspend your account. If a customer complains of a package going missing or being damaged, Amazon is the one that can take you off the route.”

Still out of work, Radcke said he is still applying to work for other DSP companies.

“I believe in this movement, I see that things need to change,” he said. “If people just give up when things are hard, then nothing's going to change, and things are going to keep getting worse.”

The Teamsters, with whom the drivers unionized, support the bill.

“The Teamsters will not allow Amazon to hide behind a smoke-and-mirrors subcontracting scheme to exploit workers and engage in illegal union-busting,” said Randy Korgan, director of the Teamsters Amazon Division. “The Delivery Protection Act is the blueprint for fighting back against Amazon’s greed and obstruction.”

Currently, the bill sits in the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection, but is co-sponsored by nearly half the Council.

A spokesperson for Amazon said they are reviewing the legislation.