Dive Brief:
- Amazon violated federal labor laws as a joint employer of California logistics employees represented by the Teamsters union, the National Labor Relations Board alleged in a Sept. 30 complaint.
- The complaint alleges that Amazon interfered with, restrained and coerced the drivers’ exercise of their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, discriminated against employees who unionized and refused to collectively bargain in good faith with the union. NLRB’s Los Angeles office previously found that delivery drivers employed by Battle Tested Strategies, an Amazon delivery service partner, in nearby Palmdale were jointly employed by Amazon.
- “This complaint makes clear that the Teamsters have been misrepresenting the facts here for over 15 months, which is why the NLRB has not included most of their larger allegations,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email. “As we’ve said all along, there is no merit to any of their claims. We look forward to showing that as the legal process continues and expect the few remaining allegations will be dismissed as well.”
Dive Insight:
The board’s finding is the latest development in a storyline that stretches back to 2023, when Battle Tested Strategies employees in Palmdale became the first group of Amazon delivery drivers to unionize. But Amazon later terminated its contract with Battle Tested Strategies, prompting the Teamsters to file a labor practice charge with NLRB, according to Wired.
NLRB found that Amazon engaged in several forms of unlawful conduct in order to chill union activity at Battle Tested Strategies, including hiring security guards and increasing the number of managers at their facility and sending a corporate employee to solicit employee complaints and grievances in the facility’s parking lot, where the representative “promised [the] employees increased benefits and improved terms and conditions of employment if they refrained from union organizational activity.”
Later, NLRB said that Amazon delayed start time for Battle Tested Strategies employees by not timely preparing packages for loading. It also alleged that the e-commerce giant took other steps to discriminate against unionizing employees, such as increasing vehicle inspections and vehicle groundings in part to delay the employees’ start times.
The agency also alleged that Amazon “possessed and exercised control” over Battle Tested Strategies’ labor relations policies and administered a common labor policy with Battle Tested Strategies for affected employees.
“Amazon can no longer hide behind its [delivery service partner] program to skirt responsibility for its driver workforce,” Bryant Cline, a driver and member of the Teamsters union representing workers at the Palmdale facility, said in a press release. “Today’s decision by the labor board makes official what we’ve long known to be true—DSP drivers are Amazon employees, and we have a fundamental right to organize, unionize, and demand fair treatment and a contract from our multibillion-dollar employer.”
Amazon has several other legal disputes with NLRB. For instance, the company filed a complaint in federal court last month alleging that the board’s structure is unconstitutional. Other companies, such as SpaceX, have taken similar action against NLRB in recent years.
