I Deliver Packages For Amazon. Now I’m on strike

My husband and I work full-time for one of the wealthiest companies in the world. So why can’t we afford to start a family?

For four years, my husband, Andrew, and I have driven delivery vehicles for Amazon throughout Southern California. My job means a lot to me. Rain or shine, I make over 160 stops a day delivering packages in my community, and I’m proud knowing that what I do makes a difference in people’s lives. But for too long, Amazon has taken advantage of me and my co-workers.

You might think a corporation worth more than $2 trillion would treat its employees better. At Amazon’s facility in the City of Industry, known as DAX5, we earn $22 per hour and I am not paid for my lunch break. I work four days per week, for 10 hours per day, and do not make enough to cover the cost of living in California. 

The vans we drive are dirty and often unsafe. On top of that, we are constantly monitored by cameras inside our vans searching for the smallest infractions—even during our breaks.

But perhaps worst of all, Amazon has attempted to block my co-workers and I from exercising our rights. They do this at my facility and others like it by hiring drivers through supposedly independent companies, referred to as Delivery Service Partners (DSPs), that deliver packages exclusively for Amazon. By doing that, they claim we are not really their employees and that they do not need to bargain with us if we form a union.

And it doesn’t stop there. If you want to be hired by a DSP, you apply for the job through the Amazon website. The routes we drive are determined by Amazon’s algorithms. And Amazon sets our schedules and has the ability to discipline and fire us.

Even though my entire job revolves around Amazon—whether it’s wearing an Amazon uniform or driving and delivering Amazon products—they argue that I’m not really an Amazon worker. 

At DAX5, all of this has made us feel powerless. For Andrew and me, the uncertainty and bad conditions we face at work have forced us to put off starting a family. We simply can’t afford it.

Why Amazon workers are unionizing 

With how much we are up against, it seemed like there was nothing we could do to get ahead in life. But then I heard about other Amazon workers who have been leading a movement to demand their rights by joining the Teamsters Union, and I became inspired to get involved.

After researching the topic more, I learned about the contracts the Teamsters Union has gotten for workers across the country—including at companies like UPS. UPS is worth about 20 times less than Amazon, but the drivers who do the same work as me are paid significantly higher wages on average. Many of their facilities have carwashes and mechanics on site. And because they are Teamsters, they have more job security. Meanwhile, our management can fire us if we look at them funny. Hearing about the Teamsters made me realize that I needed to do something to secure a better future—not just for me and Andrew but also for the family we want to start someday.

Off the clock, we started talking to other DAX5 drivers about what the Teamsters have done for workers at other companies and found out our co-workers share a lot of the same views. In November, after months of having long, hard conversations, a majority of drivers in our facility were in favor of becoming Teamsters, so we launched our union.

Since then, Amazon has refused to recognize us and negotiate a contract. We believe what they are doing is unfair and illegal. Now, workers have had enough. Thousands of Amazon Teamsters across America are taking to the picket line to demand a fair labor agreement. Workers from Amazon facilities in New York, Georgia, Illinois, and California are on strike. And overall, workers are picketing at hundreds of Amazon facilities.

We don’t want to fight with Amazon. All we want is to come to work, do our jobs, and earn enough to live on. But Amazon has left us no other choice. If we don’t act now, Amazon’s corporate greed will spread like a sickness to other companies and make them think they can get away with treating their workers just as poorly. 

The way I see it, we have to fight for our rights—they won’t be given to us for free. At Amazon, we are ready to do whatever it takes to finally get the respect we have earned.