More Amazon delivery drivers in Skokie are organizing with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union said this week, in the wake of a labor board determination in California that the union said “sets the stage” for organizing of delivery drivers nationwide.
The Teamsters said a majority of the few hundred workers who drive for several different third-party companies Amazon uses to deliver packages out of the Skokie facility have signed union authorization cards with Teamsters Local 705. The newly organized drivers, helpers, dispatchers and fleet maintenance workers are looking to form one bargaining unit, joining the roughly 100 workers at the same facility who first sought union representation earlier this summer, the Teamsters said.
Whether or not the drivers, who are technically employed by third-party companies but deliver Amazon packages, should be considered employees of both the third-party company and Amazon is the subject of debate. Amazon has maintained the drivers are not its employees and says it does not have an obligation to recognize a union.
The Teamsters, meanwhile, argue the drivers should be considered employees of Amazon and has accused the company of using its “delivery service partner” business model to shirk responsibility for the drivers.
The Teamsters’ announcement that more delivery drivers are organizing in Skokie came a week after labor board officials determined that Amazon was a joint employer of some third-party delivery drivers in Palmdale, California.
In Palmdale, drivers sought and received voluntary union recognition from Battle-Tested Strategies, the delivery service partner they were employed by. The drivers bargained a collective bargaining agreement with BTS, but Amazon later terminated its contract with the company.
The determination is only the first step in the agency’s general counsel’s litigating of unfair labor practice charges filed by the Teamsters. The labor board officials also determined that Amazon and BTS illegally failed to bargain with the union and that Amazon made illegal threats and held captive audience meetings, though they dismissed the Teamsters’ allegation that the termination of the BTS contract was retaliatory, according to National Labor Relations Board spokesperson Kayla Blado. If the parties do not settle the case and a complaint is issued, the case will be heard by one of the labor board’s administrative law judges.
“As we have said all along, there is no merit to the Teamsters’ claims,” Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards said in a statement. “If and when the agency decides it wants to litigate the remaining allegations, we expect they will be dismissed as well.”
The labor board’s joint employer determination last week applies only directly to the Palmdale drivers, though the Teamsters described it as paving the way for unionization efforts by other Amazon drivers.
“Our brothers and sisters have been taking the fight to Amazon every day, demanding fair pay, safe working conditions, and respect on the job. Now it is our turn to join the fight as Teamsters,” Skokie delivery driver Dmytro Kovalenko said in a statement provided by the Teamsters.
“We are responsible for Amazon’s huge profits, and we will not rest until we get what we deserve,” Kovalenko said.
The union said it has sought voluntary recognition of the proposed bargaining unit in Skokie.
Hards said in a statement that Amazon believes the bargaining request from the drivers in Skokie to be “based on either a misunderstanding or intentional misrepresentation of the facts.”
“The truth is that there are multiple independent small businesses that deliver for us from this building, the people who allegedly signed these cards work for four different companies, and none of them are Amazon employees,” Hards said.
Johnnie Kallas, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations, said the Teamsters have started to put significant resources toward organizing at Amazon. On Thursday, the NLRB upheld a 2022 union vote at the JFK8 Amazon warehouse in New York. Amazon workers there voted to affiliate with the Teamsters in June.
“It’s hard to understate how important and how challenging it would be for the Teamsters to organize Amazon,” Kallas said. “They’re the biggest nonunion employer in the industry.”
The request for union recognition in Skokie comes after drivers for one delivery service partner there led the unionization charge, filing for a union election this summer.
The third-party delivery provider for whom those drivers worked has since stopped working with Amazon in a move the Teamsters allege was retaliatory. The company, Four Star Express, reported a planned 104 layoffs in a state filing in June, which it attributed to a “plant closure.”
The Teamsters also allege Amazon blacklisted those drivers from future employment and that it discriminated against them by prohibiting them from continuing to deliver via other subcontractors. Amazon denies the charges of retaliation.
Amazon said Four Star Express notified the company of its plan to leave the delivery service program for what Amazon described as personal reasons at the end of May. According to the Teamsters, drivers learned on June 11 that Amazon would be terminating its contract with Four Star at the end of the month. The drivers filed a petition for a union election June 21 anyway, and Four Star ceased operations with Amazon several days later.
The former Four Star drivers have picketed Amazon throughout the summer, where they’ve been joined by elected officials including Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat who represents Skokie in Congress.
The Teamsters have maintained Amazon’s cessation of its contract with Four Star was retaliatory, arguing in a labor board filing in June that Amazon shut down Four Star operations at the Skokie facility — and caused the termination of its delivery drivers — to prevent them from unionizing.
Citing what its attorneys have described in filings as the “egregious nature” of Amazon’s conduct, the Teamsters are seeking an injunction in the Four Star case, asking the NLRB to reinstate the terminated employees and bargain with the drivers.
The Teamsters withdrew the election petition the union had filed with the NLRB in June, saying a fair election had become “impossible.” Instead, the Teamsters are asking the labor board to issue a bargaining order based upon the fact that a majority of the workers had signed union authorization cards.
The union has said it is seeking a bargaining order under the labor board’s relatively new Cemex ruling, under which the labor board can require an employer to recognize a union and bargain with its workers if it is found to have committed unfair labor practices in the run-up to a union election. The ruling also puts the onus on employers to file for a union election within two weeks if it does not grant workers voluntary recognition; if employers do not file for an election, the labor board can compel them to recognize the union and begin bargaining with workers.
Amazon’s delivery service program has been scrutinized by lawmakers in recent months. In January, more than two dozen senators — including Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois — signed onto a letter alleging the company uses subcontractors to shirk legal liability.
“On paper, Amazon claims that these DSPs are the real employers of its delivery drivers,” the senators’ letter read. “But as has been reported, DSPs have little discretion over key aspects of their businesses, which means that Amazon may be required to shoulder legal responsibility as an employer of DSP drivers.”
