Today, Mayor Zohran Mamdani rallied behind NYC’s Delivery Protection Act (DPA), a bill which would set labor and safety standards for delivery workers and require big delivery companies like Amazon directly employ their drivers. But big business is fighting back, with Amazon spending millions against the bill and threatening layoffs.

They want the public to believe this bill would “overburden” a nearly three trillion dollar company. They are betting on the public forgetting that real people — hardworking New Yorkers — suffer daily because of Amazon’s use of a third-party hiring loophole.

It’s important for reporters to understand what is at stake here. That’s why last month we co- hosted a roundtable with Teamsters Local 804 to hear directly from delivery drivers and also Council Member Tiffany Cabán, who introduced the DPA,  and Commissioner Samuel A. A. Levine of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protections. Feel free to check out and re-use clips from the evening here. 

Major concerns included (with videos linked):

• Unsafe conditions: Drivers sent out in vehicles with broken lights, wipers, and even wheels, or pressured to finish shifts after suffering major injuries. 
• Pressure to keep delivering at any cost: One driver described throwing up after due to heat stroke, only to be asked by their dispatcher to finish the route. 
• Retaliation for organizing: One driver said Amazon fired them after they educated coworkers about the Delivery Protection Act.

You can watch the full stream of the evening here. And below are some memorable quotes from the night. If you’d like to chat with any of the drivers or our team about the bill and what’s at stake please contact: agross@economicliberties.us

Here’s some of what we heard:

• “Fatality rates for drivers, they are seven to eight times… [the] average all other professions combined, which is a horror,” said AELP Senior Advisor Alvaro Bedoya. “Not only is it a dangerous industry, it’s an especially dangerous industry for newer workers and those who have not yet had the experience to log more than a year on the job.”
• “These accidents you’re describing are not accidents. This is a business model by some of the largest corporations in the world,” said DCWP Commissioner Samuel Levine. “These companies know that if they actually employed their delivery workers, they would have to train them.”
• “At the end of the day, this is a public safety bill,” said Council Member Tiffany Cabán. “Because I’ve seen the videos of workers with you know, driving wheels held together with tape. I’ve heard the the accounts of breaks going out on the highways, of getting head injuries and then being asked to finish your shift, and then… when something inevitably goes wrong [Amazon] is like Shaggy: ‘It Wasn’t Me.’”
• “A common sentiment among my coworkers… is that Amazon treats us like we’re a situationship, and yet they expect marriage commitment from us when they’re really married to their shareholders,” said one driver. “So, the Delivery Protection Act exists as kind of a marriage contract for Amazon drivers, and it’s necessary so that they actually start treating us with the level of respect that we deserve.”
• “When you decide to organize with your coworkers… what happens?” said one driver in Spanish. “They closed the doors on me. They put me on a blacklist, and… the supervisor, told me, ‘I understand your arguments, and I understand them perfectly, but you are a threat to Amazon.’”
• “They care about one thing only: delivering packages. That’s all they care about. They could care less that your mom died yesterday, your kids got something serious. They don’t care,” a former driver shared. “They’ll send you out with a truck with three wheels. The horn doesn’t work. The lights don’t work. The wipers don’t work. Just keep going.”
• “This van’s A/C did not work. It was extremely hot. I remember feeling nauseous… Before I even go back in the van, I immediately started throwing up,” one driver told us. “I called my DSP, told them what was going on, and they immediately told me, ‘Can you finish your route? Can you keep going?’ And I was like, ‘What? No, I can’t.’ And they said, ‘Just do what you can.’ And they just ignored me for the rest of the day.”
• “One driver came to us, he was fired because he got injured on the job,” a union organizer said. “He had cut his leg open. They told him, ‘Oh, can you keep working? Can you try to finish your shift?’ And he said, ‘No, I can’t. I’m bleeding. I have to go to the emergency room.’ He was fired over that.”