Amazon workers rallied in front of the Queens delivery station (DBK8) on 9/8 in protest of the company’s sudden ending of a contract with Cornucopia Logistics, a Delivery Service Partner (DSP), which prompted the layoff of over 100 workers last month. Cornucopia Logistics is one of the eight companies through which Amazon outsources drivers to deliver packages from DBK8 directly to customers. According to a speaker at the rally, workers were fired without notice after the company ended its contract with Cornucopia and have only now begun to receive layoff notices three weeks later.
The Teamsters Union, which organizes the drivers of all eight DPSs, states that the layoffs are in retaliation against workers’ unionization efforts. Despite the votes, Amazon has repeatedly refused to recognize the union, claiming that the drivers are not Amazon employees and instead are employees of the DSPs. A former worker of the Cornucopia DSP at DBK8, who was fired in January due to his involvement in last year’s strikes, told The Worker that the drivers at Cornucopia in particular are being targeted as the DSP had the largest number of workers in support of unionization at the delivery station.
In February, Amazon shut down its entire warehouse network in Quebec, Canada, laying off 2,000 workers after some of those workers unionized.
In June 2024, Amazon laid of over 100 workers as it ended its contract with Four Star Express, a DSP operating out of a delivery station in Skokie, Illinois, soon after workers voted to unionize with the Teamsters. A year prior, after workers at the Battle-Tested Strategies DSP based in Palmdale, California voted to unionize, the e-commerce monopoly ended its contract, firing 84 workers as a result.
Following these layoffs, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled last year that Amazon is a joint employer of the DSP drivers and so must recognize and negotiate with the union, and that it has engaged in unfair labor practices after refusing to discuss with the union on the effects of the contract terminations. Amazon has since appealed this ruling and continues to refuse negotiations with the unionized DSPs.
These recent layoffs come as the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals determined the structure of the NLRB to be “likely” unconstitutional last month, following lawsuits filed against the agency last year initiated by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos alongside the Trump administration and Elon Musk, among others. The reactionaries’ efforts to abolish the already-toothless NLRB is part of the US imperialists’ larger plan to destroy the overproduced means of production, including working class jobs, to overcome their economic crisis. Mass layoffs also form a part of this plan.
Image: Workers rally outside Amazon’s DBK4 facility in Queens, NY, September 8. Teamsters media.
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