SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
'Tis the season for gift-giving between Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and many presents are delivered by Amazon delivery drivers. And some drivers have now joined picket lines in protest to demand that Amazon bargain with them for a contract. Amazon maintains that these drivers are not their employees. Now, Amazon is a financial supporter of NPR, but we cover them like we do any other business.
Member station WABE's Marlon Hyde met some drivers and joins us now. Thanks for being with us.
MARLON HYDE, BYLINE: It's a pleasure to be here.
SIMON: Tell us about the drivers you met when you went to cover the Amazon protest.
HYDE: Yeah. I went out to the Amazon hub in Alpharetta, Georgia, just as a protest was starting Thursday. I talked to several drivers. One of them is Samantha Thomas (ph). She's been driving one of those blue Amazon delivery vans since May. She was one of a couple dozen drivers marching along the picket line with her sign high in the sky. It said, Amazon is unfair. Thomas says she's never been a part of a movement like this, but felt like this was the right time.
SAMANTHA THOMAS: It's a little overwhelming. I've never been a part of something so big, so monumental, and I'm excited, right? Like, I'm excited for everything that is to come. My excitement overweighs my fear right now because I never expected to see so many people actually stand together.
SIMON: Marlon, what are drivers protesting? And what do they want from the company?
HYDE: Well, Scott, these protests and strikes are organized by the Teamsters union in several Amazon locations around the country. They want Amazon to come to the bargaining table. They want better pay, better benefits and workplace safety. Thomas specifically said she would like paid time off and improved routes. She spends a lot of her time in her van making deliveries, sometimes all day. Thomas says during the holidays, it gets really cold.
THOMAS: The temperature drops down to as low as 30 degrees. We're out here, and we try to bundle with our own personal gear as much as possible, but doing the routes in the cold, it slows you down. Our bodies ache. Our bodies hurt.
HYDE: On the flip side, when it's hot in the summer, Thomas says she struggles to drink enough water. She's bouncing from house to house dropping off packages, leaving very little time to stop at a store and buy her own refreshments. For its part, Amazon says it has a heat mitigation policy that provides drivers with things like a cooler, sunscreen and electrolyte powder.
SIMON: Now, Marlon, Amazon says that drivers like Ms. Thomas just aren't their employees. They're independent contractors. I wonder what she says about that.
HYDE: Yeah. When I reached out to Amazon, they said these drivers are third-party drivers, not direct Amazon employees, and that the Teamsters are, quote, "misleading the public and coercing employees to join them." But Thomas says she only drives for Amazon, and even though she's not an employee of Amazon, the company has a great amount of control over when she works and for how long.
THOMAS: When we go out to deliver, we - a lot of us find it kind of overwhelming trying to get everything done at one time, because they don't like for us to bring packages back.
SIMON: Marlon, how long are these strikes and protests expected to continue? Any handle on that?
HYDE: Well, Scott, when I asked Thomas, she says she will keep coming until Amazon responds.
THOMAS: So however long it takes for them to just say, OK, fine, you're an itch that I can't scratch, I'm listening - we're here.
HYDE: But she's part of a small but vocal group of workers speaking out. These strikes are going on at a handful of Amazon locations across the country. The Teamsters say the strikes will go on through the holidays. One thing to note is that Amazon has hundreds of facilities, and these protests are pretty small, so they aren't affecting the deliveries the company has set.
SIMON: Marlon Hyde of member station WABE in Atlanta. Marlon, thanks so much for being with us.
HYDE: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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