WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on Thursday released a statement on the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) finding that Amazon is a joint employer of its Delivery Service Partner (DSP) drivers and that the company engaged in unfair labor practices in its dealings with workers at its DSP in Palmdale, California, including unlawfully refusing to recognize the drivers’ decision to unionize with the Teamsters.

“This is a monumental victory for hundreds of thousands of Amazon drivers all over this country. For years, Amazon has skirted accountability for its mistreatment of these workers by claiming that drivers wearing Amazon-branded vests who deliver Amazon packages while driving Amazon-branded vans are not Amazon employees. I’ve heard directly from drivers who have been forced to endure 12-hour shifts with no breaks, working in extreme heat without air conditioning or functioning windows, and driving in vans that were unsafe. But when they tried to stand up for themselves and organize, Amazon deployed every move in the union-busting playbook before eventually terminating their contract. Today’s decision by the NLRB is a shot of adrenaline for the labor movement and a warning to Amazon and all the other greedy corporations exploiting their workers in the name of profit that the tide is shifting,” said Murphy.   

In January, Murphy led a bipartisan letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy demanding information about the DSP program, including Amazon’s justification for refusing to bargain with union representatives of DSP employees and requiring DSPs to sign non-poaching agreements. After receiving a response from Amazon that was unresponsive to the questions asked, at odds with publicly available data and reporting, and appeared to be self-contradictory, Murphy led 33 of his colleagues in calling on Amazon to provide the information requested by the members. Earlier this month, Murphy and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.-12) led 25 of their colleagues in Congress in sending a letter to the NLRB encouraging the Board to reach a decision in several key cases of unfair labor practices brought against Amazon by delivery drivers across the country.

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