A gaggle of 84 drivers in Palmdale, California scored an enormous win just lately after they voted to unionize with the Teamsters. However the actual combat lies forward. Vox stories that the entire scenario is way more difficult than a easy vote.
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The primary downside lies with the standing of the employees themselves. Anybody would assume that the 84 folks work for Amazon, but the truth is that they work “for” Amazon. Sound complicated? That’s as a result of it’s.
Like many different firms, Amazon has realized that it’s cheaper to rent contract employees than it’s to convey on full-time staff. Because of this, many Amazon drivers are literally working for different firms which can be contracting their labor out to Amazon. On this case, the drivers who unionized are literally employed by an organization known as Battle Examined Methods (BTS), a last-mile logistics firm. BTS acknowledged the union after the drivers negotiated the union contract with the Teamsters.
Issues get murkier with Amazon’s claims to Vox over its contact with BTS:
Amazon has advised Vox that its contract with BTS, which completely delivers for Amazon, was terminated “effectively earlier than” employees notified the tech large Monday, however that the contract hasn’t expired but.
However the Teamsters declare that the drivers are nonetheless contracted to work for Amazon, and that their contract goes by way of October, which is when it will robotically renew.
Labor legal guidelines make all of this extra complicated, since these legal guidelines have been written earlier than the huge uptake of contract hires. Because of this, the courtroom must decide the standing of the staff: in the event that they’re collectively employed by Amazon and BTS, for instance, or in the event that they’re solely employed by BTS.
For Amazon to be a joint employer, they’d must have a controlling say in what the drivers do, as a regulation professor defined to Vox.
“If Amazon is ready to get away with ignoring the employees’ choice and hiding behind the subcontractor relationships, then I’m afraid we’ll have yet one more story of the failure of American labor regulation. If this results in a recognition that these drivers are Amazon staff, joint staff, then this might be massively vital.”
Different components at play are California’s legal guidelines regarding impartial contractors or staff for the corporate in addition to the elephant within the room: whether or not Amazon purposely terminated its contract with BTS as a result of the corporate knew that the drivers have been unionizing. Whether or not this combat will get higher or worse for the drivers, the importance of merely unionizing as an Amazon driver is likely to be sufficient of a win for some.