Amazon delivers problems for workers
Adecade ago, there were no Amazon distribution facilities in New York City. Today, there are 17. Many New Yorkers may hope the influx will bring faster deliveries, but for the 28,000 workers in this city who make their living in the warehouse and package delivery industries, the rise of Amazon means more work for less pay.
I’m a lifelong New Yorker, the son of West Indian immigrants. I joined the Marines after school and got a job at FedEx when I returned to civilian life.
When you deliver packages in New York, you get to know other workers whose routes overlap with yours. Whether they sport FedEx purple, UPS brown or Post Office blue, you build camaraderie with your brothers and sisters on the job. UPS drivers would tell me about the benefits of working union, which I didn’t have at FedEx, from better wages and a pension to protections from unjust discipline or termination.
My father was a union carpenter; I saw the difference that made growing up, which led me to want to drive for UPS. I soon switched employers and became a Teamster.
Union drivers make a middle-class wage with excellent benefits. It’s not because our employers are generous; it took union members fighting for a century to build these standards while often overcoming employer or government repression.
In 1938, 15,000 Teamster truck drivers went on strike in New York City, shutting down shipments in and out of the five boroughs. They were demanding a 40-hour workweek, down from 47 hours. While on strike for two weeks, they inspired drivers in New Jersey to join them. They didn’t win everything they asked for, but they reduced their hours while maintaining their weekly pay. Future union members built on that victory to eventually win the 40-hour week and other benefits we take for granted today.
Still, being a delivery driver is hard. We lift packages up to 70 pounds alone, and the number of stops I make has doubled over my career. But because I have a union, we’ve negotiated fair pay and benefits to make this a job where I can retire.
Meanwhile, Amazon diminishes good jobs in our industry and cheapens our work. I make $39 per hour, but Amazon workers are getting as little as $18.50 per hour to do the same work.
Amazon has gotten a lot of good press for employee benefits like paying for college, but annual tuition payments may be capped at $5,250, far short of the cost of most institutions. All workers should have the opportunity for an education, but by investing in that and not in better wages and benefits, Jeff Bezos is showing that he would rather these workers leave for other jobs than make long-term careers for them at Amazon.
This should be a job like it once was, where you work Monday to Friday and spend the weekends with your family. But that isn’t the Bezos vision for delivery workers.
His vision has Amazon workers delivering seven days a week. The Post Office does too, at Amazon’s behest, and UPS recently started Saturday delivery. While a convenience for customers, it’s our families who pay the price. I have four kids. I’m supposed to be there to teach them to swim and watch them ride a bike for the first time without training wheels. I’ve missed these precious moments, and on my one day off, I’m too exhausted to be the dad I want to be.
The Amazon workers I’ve talked to say they don’t feel like human beings on the job. Amazon employees are under so much pressure to deliver their packages that they sometimes can’t take time for lunch or to treat an injury. Amazon workers are our friends, family and neighbors, and we must offer them our support.
All New York workers can stand up to Amazon, just like our predecessors who went on strike for our current standards. But this fight is not just for working New Yorkers alone; our state’s elected leaders can pass legislation like New York’s 21st Century Antitrust Act, which would hold corporations accountable for using market power to lower wages and weaken working conditions across industries. It passed the state Senate earlier this year.
My union is training thousands of Teamsters across the country to support Amazon workers, and we’ll continue to advocate for critical legislation to aid our cause. Like the Teamsters who reached out to me when I joined the industry, I am here for the Amazon workers who want a middle-class life for their families, and I know that my union is standing beside me to help workers at Amazon build worker power.