Drivers in California have joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, in one of the first driver-specific unionization efforts in the company. Amazon drivers and dispatchers in California have joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the oldest, largest, and most powerful unions in the U.S., to organize for better working conditions, according to an announcement by the Teamsters on Monday. On the same day, workers marched on Amazon’s management offices at the warehouse to demand that the company respect their right to unionize. This is the first time the Teamsters have successfully organized an Amazon-related facility. The group of 84 delivery drivers in Palmdale, California work at Amazon’s DAX8 delivery station. They’re not Amazon employees, but rather employees of an Amazon Delivery Service Partner (DSP) called Battle-Tested Strategies. The delivery company, not Amazon, is responsible for dispatching and planning routes for drivers—but it dispatches out of DAX8 and delivers Amazon-branded packages, often with Amazon-branded trucks or vans. This is a significant development in the unionization effort across Amazon, one of the biggest employers in the country, because its large network of DSPs is how it’s able to deliver packages so quickly.
via vice: A Group of Amazon Drivers Just Joined One of the Biggest Unions in the US