More than 100 Atlanta area drivers who make deliveries for Amazon have signed on to an attempt to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and challenge the company to bargain with them for a contract that they say would include higher pay and better benefits.
As the holiday gift season intensifies in the run-up to Christmas, the group — which operates many of the Amazon vans seen throughout metro Atlanta — said they feel badly treated in a job that often requires hundreds of daily stops.
“There are a lot of things that Amazon has gotten away with, but it’s a huge company and it needs to pay its workers a decent income,” said Trent Knight, a driver. “We hope that Amazon will see the light, but if not, it will be a long, drawn-out fight.”
But the company says the Atlanta drivers have the wrong target: They don’t work for Amazon, they work for firms that contract with Amazon to deliver packages.
“The union says they are all drivers for Amazon and that is absolutely not true,” said Eileen Hards, a spokeswoman for the company, which had revenues of about $575 billion during its last fiscal year. “Our drivers are allowed to unionize, but that is between them and their employers.”