More than 100 Atlanta area drivers who make deliveries for Amazon have signed on to an attempt to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and challenge the company to bargain with them for a contract that they say would include higher pay and better benefits.
As the holiday gift season intensifies in the run-up to Christmas, the group — which operates many of the Amazon vans seen throughout metro Atlanta — said they feel badly treated in a job that often requires hundreds of daily stops.
“There are a lot of things that Amazon has gotten away with, but it’s a huge company and it needs to pay its workers a decent income,” said Trent Knight, a driver. “We hope that Amazon will see the light, but if not, it will be a long, drawn-out fight.”
But the company says the Atlanta drivers have the wrong target: They don’t work for Amazon, they work for firms that contract with Amazon to deliver packages.
“The union says they are all drivers for Amazon and that is absolutely not true,” said Eileen Hards, a spokeswoman for the company, which had revenues of about $575 billion during its last fiscal year. “Our drivers are allowed to unionize, but that is between them and their employers.”
Those third-party companies, which receive support from the company, are part of Amazon’s “Delivery Service Partner” program, she said.
“The Teamsters are continuing to intentionally mislead and misrepresent the facts,” Hards said. “The truth is that there are multiple independent small businesses that deliver on our behalf … and none of them are Amazon employees.”
Those contractors deliver more than 20 million packages a day. The delivery partner program accounts for 390,000 driving jobs, annual revenues of $58 billion and has “empowered 4,400 entrepreneurs to build and scale their businesses,” the company said.
The Atlanta drivers who joined the Teamsters work directly for two firms: Blue Cardinal and ATOM. According to a statement from the Teamsters “Amazon wields absolute control over the terms and conditions of employment for its delivery drivers.”
Blue Cardinal pay ranges from $12 to $23 an hour, according to Zip Recruiter, an online job board. ATOM Logistics pays “from $21.25 an hour,” according to Simply Hired, which also has job listings.
Amazon — which has historically resisted unionization — faces efforts in other citiesthat are similar to the campaign in Atlanta.
The company is currently fighting Teamster campaigns by warehouse workers in San Francisco and delivery drivers in Queens, New York, and Victorville and City of Industry in California.
The unionization effort comes with the political environment for labor in flux.
President Joe Biden’s appointments have been pro-labor, including those to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees conflicts like those between the Teamsters and Amazon. But the drivers’ case won’t likely be decided before the administration of President-elect Donald Trump is in place.
Though Trump courted union voters during the 2024 campaign and won support of many blue-collar voters, Trump’s record during his first term was less than cordial to organized labor.
During those four years, his administration took a number of actions that were seen as anti-labor
For instance, Trump signed a resolution blocking the Workplace Injury and Illness record-keeping rule, “which clarifies an employer’s obligation under the Occupational Safety and Health Act to maintain accurate records of workplace injuries and illnesses,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
His first-term nominees to top positions at the Department of Labor, notably Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, were not union-friendly, nor were appointments to the NLRB nor judges that he appointed.
Changes in regulation under Trump included restrictions on overtime pay and cuts in the number of OSHA inspectors, as well as weaker penalties for companies failing to report violations, according to the National Employment Law Project.
Despite that history, some union activists hope for better results this time.
Trump has nominated the daughter of a Teamster, a pro-union Republican, to be Secretary of Labor. Moreover, the Teamsters’ president, Sean O’Brien, addressed the Republican National Convention. While most big unions endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president — the Teamsters leader declined to make an endorsement.
As precedent for a union drive in Atlanta, the union cites a “monumental victory” in California when a regional arm of the NLRB concluded that Amazon was a “joint employer” with the DSP contractors.
But that case is still wending its way through the NLRB process.
“The unions say a lot of things that are misleading, especially the Teamsters,” Hards said. “That was simply a merit finding and not a final decision by a judge. The regional office of the NLRB has notified us and the Teamsters that it is dismissing most of the Teamsters’ more significant claims it filed last year in Palmdale.”
The case is expected to appear before an administrative law judge, when Amazon expects the remaining allegations to be dismissed, she said. “As we have said all along, there is no merit to the Teamsters’ claims.”
The union sees it differently. A spokeswoman said Amazon was mischaracterizing the case and called the Amazon position “a blatant refusal to accept reality.”
Knight, the Atlanta driver, said he doesn’t expect an easy road to a contract.
The company expects high turnover in blue-collar jobs, he said, so it never feels the need to raise pay and benefits as a way to keep workers happy, he said.
“I come from a blue-collar family and my father was in a union, so I know, it’s a struggle — a war is not easy” he said. “But once they realize that people are not scared, they will have to come forward with a good offer.”
About the Author
