Amazon Delivery Drivers’ Strike Raises Joint Employer Question

A group of delivery drivers based in Southern California contracted with Amazon.com Inc. have been striking for nearly three weeks, but questions remain whether the workers are actually considered Amazon employees and what the strike could mean for the e-commerce giant.

The drivers are technically employees of Battle-Tested Strategies, a “delivery service partner” whose sole client is Amazon. According to Amazon’s company website, these partners are designed to “empower leaders who want to launch and operate their own delivery business.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 396, the union representing the drivers, however, says that the business model is designed for Amazon to control all aspects of employment, without having to bargain with a union. But to succeed in their goals of a collective bargaining agreement, they’ll first need to convince the National Labor Relations Board that Amazon is a joint employer.

Amazon terminated its contract with BTS on April 14, citing breach of contract, just days before the union won recognition from the delivery service partner. The Teamsters filed a complaint with the NLRB in May claiming that the tech company terminated the contract with BTS in response to the union activity.

The workers have been on strike for over three weeks and have expanded their strike to multiple Amazon warehouses throughout Californiaand in New Jersey. But with the contract expiring June 24 and the work stoppage ongoing, one question remains: Who exactly are the Teamsters striking against?

The Arguments

The union’s complaint centers on issues with the Amazon delivery vehicles. The Teamsters allege that workers often have to work in vans without air conditioning in the California desert, and that the doors of the vehicles are dangerous and often fall off.

Amazon said it was BTS’s responsibility to fix the vans as a delivery service partner. Moreover, the company terminated the contract with BTS due to six individual breaches of contract, including a vehicle inspection and safety audit, Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards said in an email.

“The Teamsters are being intentionally misleading and continue to promote a false narrative. Their contract is with Battle Tested Strategies, not Amazon,” Hards said. “That company and their employees no longer deliver Amazon packages.”

Hards added that the expansion of the strike to additional warehouses has not impacted Amazon’s ability to deliver products to its customers.

But BTS CEO Johnathon Ervin said he voluntarily agreed to recognize the union after failed attempts to get the retail giant to repair his fleet of delivery vans, many of which had broken air conditions and malfunctioning doors.

“I trusted Amazon would listen to concerns about safety from those who do the work,” Ervin said in a statement.

Joint Employer Question

If the Teamsters are to be successful in their NLRB claim and force Amazon to recognize the union, they need to prove the company was a joint employer, according to legal observers.

Determining if an entity is a joint employer comes down to “how much control the alleged joint employer has over terms and conditions of employment,” said Wilma Liebman, a former NLRB chair under the Obama administration. “The ultimate question is whether it can be said that two employers co-determined relevant wages, hours, and working conditions.”

Randy Korgan, secretary-treasurer at Teamsters Local 1932 in San Bernadino, Calif., said Amazon had complete control over Battle-Tested Strategies, and could hire and fire employees unilaterally, a key test of a joint employment under the National Labor Relations Act.

“The definition for employer has changed between Republican and Democratic boards, but this would meet the joint employer standard under a more conservative definition of joint employer if they prove the facts,” said Anne Lofaso, a former NLRB attorney and a professor at West Virginia University College of Law.

The dispute comes amid a push at the NLRB to expand the definition of a joint employer to include anyone who has indirect or unexercised control over the terms and conditions of employment. Under the NLRA, a joint employer must engage in collective bargaining with unionized employees.

A ‘Contagion Effect’

If the NLRB were to find Amazon is in fact a joint employer of the drivers, would mark the first time that Amazon drivers have unionized and collectively bargained for a contract in the company’s history.

The expanding strike is also occurring at a critical point for delivery drivers across the country. Last week, talks between United Parcel Service Inc. and the Teamsters, who represent more than 300,000 UPS workers, many of whom are drivers, stalled after weeks of tense negotiations.

Given the state of the UPS negations, a joint-employer ruling could lead to a “contagion effect” among other Amazon delivery drivers throughout the country, said Tom Kochan, management professor and faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Institute for Work and Employment Research.

“I suspect there are many other drivers at Amazon who share the same concerns as the drivers in California,” Kochan said. “So if there is a way for them to gain representation, I believe you will see a significant number choose to make an effort, and I can see the Teamsters putting significant resources into an organizing effort.”

Unionizing Amazon workers has been a priority for Teamsters President Sean O’Brien since he won election in 2021.

“The admin under O’Brien’s leadership recognize Amazon and UPS need to be held accountable to an industry standard,” Korgan said.