World News

22058 readers

1 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

662

Amazon Delivery Drivers Walk Out in First-Ever Driver Strike | Vice (www.vice.com)

submitted 1 year ago by dirtmayor to c/news

50 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Archive Link from archive.today

Original link from Vice

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] thal3s@kbin.social 66 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

The [84] drivers, who work for the Amazon delivery service partner (DSP) Battle-Tested Strategies in Palmdale, California, unionized with the Teamsters in late April, and are demanding that Amazon come to the bargaining table to negotiate a contract. Drivers have already negotiated and ratified a contract with the DSP, which voluntarily recognized their union.

Amazon has previously stated that, because the drivers don’t work directly for Amazon—they work for the DSP, which is then contracted by Amazon—that the company is not obligated to bargain with them. For the past month, the union has been trying to prove that wrong, saying that, despite Amazon placing all responsibility onto the DSP, it is in fact in “complete control” of the DSP’s operations.

While the strike is important, if we can get recognition that these subcontractors are just a way for corporations to dodge employment laws, that would be fucking HUGE.

[–] OofShoot 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While the strike is important, if we can get recognition that these subcontractors are just a way for corporations to dodge employment laws, that would be fucking HUGE.

I've been idly trying to come up with a framework that discourages this kind of behavior, and I haven't come up with anything good. Got any ideas? Everything I come up with either wouldn't work or would never get implemented.

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@lemmy.one 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A fucking livable minimum wage to start at. Universal health care for another. Free, or very inexpensive, education for a third. Basic things that other countries seem able to do.

[–] melonplant@latte.isnot.coffee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Agreed but the same benefits as a full time employee would be a start.

[–] defeater@vlemmy.net 9 points 1 year ago

God they’re really going to do anything they can to avoid unionization. It’s so fucking disgusting.

[–] MyMulligan@lemmy.one 6 points 1 year ago

This obfuscation of who works for who via a series of subcontracts is horrible. I personally know of the janitorial BS that got started by Winters Cleaning and the cinema industry in the 90s. There's an article that Variety did on it some years back. It's about removing responsibility from the company benefitting from the labor. It increases the likelihood that impoverished, desperate people will be taken advantage of. When problems are noticed the last company in the line of subcontractors just fold up. No one is held accountable.

If Amazon has deep control of operations due their contracts, then yes, Amazon is their employer.