Mayor throws weight behind delivery worker bill

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is ramping up his fight with Amazon and some other big corporations, this time over worker protections. 

“Because if Amazon is delivering your packages, then they should follow the rules of every other delivery company,” said the mayor in a social media video on Monday.  

Mamdani, in a new social media video, showed his support for the Delivery Protection Act, which is legislation that would require companies like Amazon to directly hire employees instead of going through subcontractors. 

The bill’s sponsor, Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán, explained her push.

“People that are in Amazon vests, driving Amazon vans, delivering Amazon packages. They’re saddled with impossible quotas, vehicles that are falling apart. And then, when something inevitably goes wrong because of that. Amazon gets to say, not my employee, not my problem because they use the sham of a subcontracting model to insulate themselves,” she said.

Cabán’s bill would eliminate the current contractor model and place the responsibility for worker safety and employment directly on the distribution company. 

“It makes it so that whether you are Amazon or some other delivery partner or carrier, that you are employing your workers, that you are responsible for their safety and training. That you cannot retaliate against them,” she said.

NY1 has reached out to Amazon for comment and has not heard back. 

Cabán joined union members on Long Island on Monday to rally for the bill. 

In Harlem, there was a separate protest with critics of the bill, including other delivery workers and subcontractors. 

“There’s an estimated 3,500 last mile delivery jobs in the four adjoining council districts alone. Up to 10,000 across this city. Held mostly by New Yorkers without a college degree. Jobs you can start on a Monday with no diploma and no car,” Kris Basgamy, the owner of DashWave Delivery, said.

“I urge you to consider that there are thousands of people directly employed by delivery companies whose livelihoods would be severely disrupted by this bill,” Christine Chan of Highgate Logistics said. 

The bill was introduced earlier this year and got a hearing in April. City Council Speaker Julie Menin has not fallen on either side of the argument.

A spokesman in a statement to NY1 said the bill is going through the legislative process.

As of this week, there are 34 council members who support the legislation, which is a supermajority of the council.  

“This is the culmination of a groundswell of support. Its workers, its street safety folks, its environmental protection folks, and now we have the full weight of the administration too,” Cabán said.