For greater than a 12 months, Esly Paredes shared common dispatches of her life as a supply driver for Amazon to her small following on TikTok — dishing on her most well-liked lunch spots and trend scores amongst a whole bunch of movies of herself hauling packages and killing time between shifts.
In a single April 30 submit — filmed, like lots of her movies, in full uniform inside a parked Amazon truck — a person she describes as her boss smiles and waves on the digital camera.
Paredes mentioned her bosses by no means raised any points about her fledgling social media presence. That’s, till she posted a sequence of movies supporting a Metropolis Council invoice fiercely opposed by Amazon and a consortium of teams representing the corporate’s subcontractors.
Paredes was fired on Could 27 for violating her employer’s solicitation and social media insurance policies, in accordance with a duplicate of her termination letter obtained by The Metropolis Reporter, a cost she says violates her free speech rights. She filed a proper grievance to the Nationwide Labor Relations Board with the assistance of the Teamsters, which has been organizing Amazon supply drivers in New York and California for the final a number of years.
“They thought I’d keep quiet, they usually thought that by firing me, they might silence me,” Paredes, a 31-year-old single mom from Jamaica, Queens, mentioned in Spanish. “However I’m elevating my voice, talking out in my movies much more to elucidate to fellow drivers why these protections are mandatory.”
Amazon spokesperson Leigh Anne Gullett mentioned in an announcement that the corporate had no involvement “in any personnel choice involving Ms. Paredes.”
“Supply Service Companions are impartial companies that rent and handle their very own workers,” mentioned Gullett.
Vincent Satriano, proprietor of Paredes’ former employer Satriano Logistics/STAA, mentioned in an electronic mail: “This choice adopted repeated violations of my firm’s insurance policies. No different elements had been concerned.”
The invoice Paredes backed would straight affect staff like her. Launched by Councilmember Tiffany Cabán of Queens, it seeks to pressure Amazon to straight rent supply staff which can be at the moment employed by a patchwork of contractors. The invoice is backed by 30 lawmakers and the Mamdani administration, however has but to be voted on by the complete Metropolis Council.
Amazon’s ‘Companions’
In New York, Amazon’s supply fleet is subcontracted by greater than 40 corporations it refers to as “supply service companions,” or DSPs — an association critics say shields Amazon from legal responsibility in case of accidents, wage theft complaints, and collective bargaining. The web retail large says these subcontractors are answerable for the employees, regardless that they drive Amazon-branded vehicles, put on Amazon-branded vests, and depend on Amazon for roadside help.
For years, federal regulators had been constructing a landmark case over Amazon’s management over its contract drivers. Regional administrators of the Nationwide Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles and Atlanta issued preliminary rulings in 2024 figuring out that Amazon is a joint employer of its subcontracted drivers and could be held accountable for anti-union exercise.
However these efforts dimmed within the second Trump administration with the appointment of a former outdoors legal professional for Amazon as the top of the NLRB.
An exposé by Bloomberg Businessweek this month revealed the lengths that Amazon goes by to manage the drivers it insists should not its workers: forcing its contractors to dispatch drivers in hazardous climate situations in opposition to their very own judgement, dictating which distributors they’ll go into enterprise with and even setting drivers’ supply routes. (Amazon disputed these findings.)
Along with requiring subcontracted drivers to put on the corporate’s uniform, Amazon additionally instructs them to be freed from “disagreeable breath or physique odor, modest fragrance/cologne, and clear enamel, face/ears, fingernails and hair,” in accordance with paperwork obtained by Bloomberg.
Amazon and enterprise teams declare Cabán’s invoice will kneecap small companies and result in hundreds of misplaced jobs. Representatives for Amazon say if handed, the retail large might have to think about pulling its operations out of New York totally.
As Amazon and its subcontractors have escalated efforts to quash Cabán’s invoice, a number of drivers employed by Amazon supply service companions in The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens who spoke with The Metropolis Reporter mentioned their bosses provided to pay workers to attend an April rally at Metropolis Corridor in opposition to the invoice and to take a seat in on conferences with lawmakers as representatives for the corporate lobbied in opposition to reforms.
One employee who spoke with The Metropolis Reporter, who requested to stay nameless out of worry of retaliation, mentioned he obtained a full day’s pay and free automotive service to Metropolis Corridor and again for his or her time. Staff at different DSPs say their colleagues obtained similar gives from their very own bosses.
Cabán mentioned that she met with Paredes earlier than her firing and noticed one in every of her movies the place she is hauling heavy packages by herself on the job with none backup. She mentioned her workplace has been in touch since her firing as effectively and is in “full help” of her prices in opposition to Amazon.
Fired Driver’s Free Speech Declare
Paredes, a driver for about three years earlier than she was fired, first began posting movies in favor of the Supply Safety Act after the April rally at Metropolis Corridor. She didn’t attend that rally herself, however heard concerning the invoice by different coworkers who did attend — on each side of the difficulty — and ultimately supported the invoice. She mentioned she wished her viewers of fellow supply drivers to have all of the info concerning the Metropolis Council and the Teamsters’ efforts.
Her supervisor instructed her to cease, which she mentioned she interpreted as a directive to cease filming TikToks on the job. However she continued to submit concerning the invoice, in addition to her common content material, at residence, typically in her Amazon uniform.
“I’ve a proper to free speech on this nation,” Paredes instructed The Metropolis Reporter. “They will’t inform me what to do in my own residence.”
She then obtained two ultimate written warnings from the human assets division at Satriano Logistics, dated Could 19, instructing her to delete all her movies inside 24 hours over her violations of the corporate’s social media and solicitation insurance policies.
“It has come to our consideration that you’ve got posted content material that disparages the corporate and discloses delicate operational data,” learn the discover, which additionally instructed her to cease all recordings.
In a proper grievance submitted to the federal Nationwide Labor Relations Board contesting Paredes’ firing, the Teamsters wrote that her social media was “protected concerted activit[y]” and that the corporate’s calls for that she delete all of her content material interfered with these rights. The Teamsters submitted the grievance in opposition to Amazon and Satriano Logistics/STAA on June 4.
Paredes insists that till she began talking favorably concerning the Supply Safety Act, none of her supervisors had raised any points about her social media content material. In truth, she claims she’d had informal conversations with at the very least one superior about probably collaborating on a video to advertise the transport firm.
She posted one other video after her firing, calling out Amazon straight and denouncing her “unjust” firing. Referring to Amazon, she says in Spanish: “They’re terrified about this invoice, as a result of they’re afraid that if we’re in full data of our rights, we’re going to defend ourselves and push for this invoice that advantages us — however not Amazon and the DSPs.”
She instructed The Metropolis Reporter she’s struggling to discover a new job and has dipped into her financial savings to help herself and her younger daughter. She utilized for meals stamps, however she continues to be ready for the profit to kick in.
“I’ve nothing in opposition to my bosses — that is all on Amazon,” she mentioned. “They should take duty for us, respect our rights and be honest with us.”
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