New York’s Delivery Protection Act would force Amazon to employ the couriers who already wear its logo. Amazon’s own subcontracting model is the best argument for why it should.
Okay. The bill is an interesting one. It does have the side effect that it will significantly damage independent courier services. Which, New York City being New York City and all, they’ve got a lot of two or three employee ran courier services.
I get what the ultimate goal here is. Amazon would then have to pay particular wages, insurance, 401(k) options, etc. That’s a great goal. But Amazon contracts a lot in NYC. Which means the courier business in NYC isn’t owned completely by a single entity, now the primary customer of that industry is one really big company, but Amazon doesn’t own any of those couriers.
What this will do, is force Amazon to buy all of them out. Hire the employees and give benefits. But it will also mean that Amazon owns most of the NYC courier service in the city at that point. Now obviously, it’s better for Amazon if they don’t have to have employees and just subcontract, but push come to shove, if they have to by law take stake, they’re going to want to own all of it. And when Mamdani is gone, they’ll have a unique position to convince a Mayor from the other side to pull the ladder up.
Now all of this is just me thinking out loud. Don’t take any of this with any significant grain of salt. I get what the goal is here, I’m cool with that. But forcing Amazon into the courier service in NYC and take ownership, I can’t imagine them wanting to play fair once they get in. And this honestly relies on a lot of the “new invented” local union that this would create to mitigate a lot of issues.
I get the goal, I’m just thinking concentrating Amazon into pure entity that dominates entirely a local industry is asking for trouble. Maybe I’m being cynical.
Couldn’t they also just make sure the contractors are actual contractors? They shouldn’t care what vehicle you drive, how many people it takes, what kind of clothes you wear, or exactly what time it gets done. Just deliver X number of packages in Y number of hours for Z dollars.
Okay. The bill is an interesting one. It does have the side effect that it will significantly damage independent courier services. Which, New York City being New York City and all, they’ve got a lot of two or three employee ran courier services.
I get what the ultimate goal here is. Amazon would then have to pay particular wages, insurance, 401(k) options, etc. That’s a great goal. But Amazon contracts a lot in NYC. Which means the courier business in NYC isn’t owned completely by a single entity, now the primary customer of that industry is one really big company, but Amazon doesn’t own any of those couriers.
What this will do, is force Amazon to buy all of them out. Hire the employees and give benefits. But it will also mean that Amazon owns most of the NYC courier service in the city at that point. Now obviously, it’s better for Amazon if they don’t have to have employees and just subcontract, but push come to shove, if they have to by law take stake, they’re going to want to own all of it. And when Mamdani is gone, they’ll have a unique position to convince a Mayor from the other side to pull the ladder up.
Now all of this is just me thinking out loud. Don’t take any of this with any significant grain of salt. I get what the goal is here, I’m cool with that. But forcing Amazon into the courier service in NYC and take ownership, I can’t imagine them wanting to play fair once they get in. And this honestly relies on a lot of the “new invented” local union that this would create to mitigate a lot of issues.
I get the goal, I’m just thinking concentrating Amazon into pure entity that dominates entirely a local industry is asking for trouble. Maybe I’m being cynical.
Couldn’t they also just make sure the contractors are actual contractors? They shouldn’t care what vehicle you drive, how many people it takes, what kind of clothes you wear, or exactly what time it gets done. Just deliver X number of packages in Y number of hours for Z dollars.