When a rare snowstorm hit the Palmdale area in February, closing the road on one of its routes, Ervin went to the blockage to capture video to send to Amazon as evidence. The company still required its drivers to attempt deliveries, so it could register them in Amazon’s system. “In the military, that would be an illegal order,” Ervin says. “Because it’s not safe.”
On April 24, BTS drivers publicly announced that they would unionize with the Teamsters. Ervin agreed to voluntarily recognize the union without requiring drivers to hold elections, a move he considers a no-brainer. “Making their voices heard was the only option for me. We fought together [against Amazon] for quite a while. »
Amazon refused to negotiate with the union, so Ervin entered into the contract without it. On April 28, drivers voted to ratify it, guaranteeing an immediate wage increase from 30 cents an hour to more than $20, eventually rising to $30 by September, the right to refuse to deliver packages in dangerous conditions, and other improvements.
But Ervin will struggle to meet those obligations if Amazon doesn’t sign the deal, given the company’s control over driver pay and working conditions, such as its ability to fire drivers who refuse deliveries. “The reason we asked Amazon to sit down is because they have so much control in particular areas that BTS doesn’t have the ability to make some of these decisions on their own,” explains Randy Korgan, who oversees the Teamsters. “Amazon’s strategy. “If they are ignored, the entity making the decision needs to sit down or restructure their contract to give them leeway.”
On April 14, Amazon informed Ervin that it would terminate his contract on June 24, months before his October renewal date and in accordance with California’s WARN law, which requires 60 days’ notice of mass layoffs. The company sent him a settlement agreement, which he rejected. “As far as I’m concerned, my contract renews automatically in October,” he specifies. “We will continue to work.”
In early May, the Teamsters filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, which judges American labor law, asking it to prevent Amazon from terminating BTS’ contract. If the charge is successful, the NLRB could blow a major hole in Amazon’s DSP program, ruling that Amazon controls the work of drivers like Ervin’s so much that it is their de facto employer.
