this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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Amazon Says It Doesn't 'Employ' Drivers, But Records Show It Hired Firms to Prevent Them From Unionizing::Amazon spent $14.2 million total on anti-union consulting in 2022, filings with the Department of Labor show.

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[–] dunning_cougar@waveform.social 75 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then who or what is driving the delivery trucks that say Amazon on the side?

[–] krische@lemmy.world 121 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Independent contractors. They're like employees in almost every way except the legal way.

[–] DrZoidberg@sh.itjust.works 45 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I've had Amazon packages delivered by some dude wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt driving a random Toyota Corolla. It's like they use Uber for delivery.

[–] buckykat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 1 year ago

Anything to keep the union out

[–] Nommer@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago

They do. I have a friend that makes some side cash delivering for them in his personal vehicle.

[–] Nhickz@lemmy.one 11 points 1 year ago

Thats an amazon flex driver , its like a much more strict uber eats , they only hire so many flex drivers , but it works similar to uber , pick your hours , they normaly have a route between 1-3 hours , around 25-100 packages , used to be more , but they lowered it . Amazon has delivery service providers for the main vans , they are "self made companies" . Amazon provides the initial cash to start them , normaly charges them for the vans , and has nearly all controle over them . They live in a legal gray area , most have few enough "employees" to skirt large business laws .

[–] Hyggyldy@sffa.community 41 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What's crazy is I hear unionization is usually more expensive to fight against, but these CEO's are essentially morally opposed to it. Every time I hear stories of these people their lives would have been so much easier and their businesses more profitable but they just cannot stand people unionizing.

[–] phillaholic@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

They also have the option of not treating them like shit. Happy workers don’t usually want to unionize.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Yeah it’s because it flies in the face of their hierarchy

[–] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That’s weirdest part, at this point the hoops Amazon has jumped through vs how profitable of a company they are - it must be cheaper for them to just let people unionise and pay them more + give better conditions?

[–] trashgirl96@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My partner did this for a few days, he was contracted by a regional "company" that supplied delivery vans to Amazon. He had to pay for his own gas plus a fee to "rent" the van, after those things were subtracted it wasn't worth it for him to do it long term but was good in a pinch. He got paid per package delivered, and packages he was given were spread out over a couple different cities. Hourly it worked out to a lot less than minimum wage especially since we lived in a high traffic area.

It definitely made me think twice about ordering from Amazon and I boycott it as much as I can as those people are not being paid fairly AT ALL. They work hard and deserve a fair wage and more stability that would come from being an employee rather than an independent contractor

[–] TheSealStartedIt@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

You're right to boycott Amazon. But unfortunately, other delivery companies are not paying their employees any better, at least here in Germany..

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 6 points 1 year ago

That's the whole idea behind their logistics network. They didn't hire hire logistics network, they "outsourced" it while paying for a lot of the capital costs of those companies.