DTG5 Drivers Among Thousands of Teamsters Demanding Amazon Bargain Contract

(ATLANTA) – Amazon drivers at the company’s DGT5 facility in Atlanta have formed a union with the Teamsters and demanded union recognition with a “March on the Boss” today. The Atlanta drivers’ demand for recognition comes just weeks after neighboring drivers at the DGT8 facility organized with the Teamsters. With this announcement, nine Amazon locations and more than 7,000 Amazon workers have organized with the Teamsters across the country.  

Amazon associates are now in holiday peak season, working long hours to manage high demand while being pushed to meet dangerous quotas. For drivers, this means hundreds of stops a day to deliver a massive volume of packages at breakneck speed. DTG5 drivers have organized to secure better pay and benefits, safer conditions, and a voice on the job. 

“The pay we get for the work we do is absurd. Amazon is a trillion dollar company, but many of us struggle to pay our bills, our rent, medical expenses, even groceries,” said Anna Ruth Brown, an Amazon Teamster at DTG5. “We came together and joined the Teamsters because we are ready to fight back. Amazon has gotten away with its egregious mistreatment for too long. Both drivers and warehouse workers across the U.S. are standing up and demanding respect and a voice on the job, and because there are more of us than there are of them, we know we will win.”

The Atlanta Amazon drivers at both DTG5 and DGT8 are paving the way for Amazon workers across the South to join the historic Teamsters organizing drive taking place coast-to-coast. Since September, warehouse workers in San Francisco and delivery drivers in Queens, Victorville, and City of Industry have all formed unions with the Teamsters and demanded recognition. Meanwhile, workers at the massive KSBD air hub in California have taken action over unfair labor practices and air quality concerns, and workers at the KCVG air hub in Kentucky have also walked off the job in protest of the company’s unfair labor practices. In June, Amazon Labor Union members at JFK8 in Staten Island voted to affiliate with the Teamsters by a near unanimous 98.3 percent in favor. The growing momentum is inspiring more Amazon workers to join the thousands already part of the union.

Amazon uses a Delivery Service Partner (DSP) business model that allows the company to wield absolute control over the terms and conditions of employment for its delivery drivers, while claiming that they are not employers of the drivers. This argument fell apart in August, when Amazon drivers in Palmdale, Calif., secured a monumental victory after the National Labor Relations Board Region 31 made a determination that Amazon is a joint employer of its drivers, and therefore has a legal duty to recognize and bargain with the Teamsters. This joint employer determination sets a major precedent and is applicable to Amazon drivers who work under similar conditions nationwide, including the Atlanta DTG5 drivers. 

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

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