he Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is facing a new labor challenge from its Delivery Service Partners, who are aiming for Amazon to increase pay for package deliveries and reimbursement for van usage, and loosen the criteria for bonus payouts.
The initiative is being spearheaded by a group calling itself “DSPs for Equitable and Fair Treatment” (DEFT), which went public on Black Friday in an attempt to organize Amazon's roughly 2,400 delivery service partners to fight for better terms.
The founders haven't yet revealed their identities, but the group has apparently been in the works since this summer, around the time when delivery-fleet owners started receiving surprise bills for van repairs. Backlash by owners on Amazon's internal forums, partly organized in Signal chats, led to Amazon reversing the fees, but ultimately inspired DEFT's founders to create a formal organization as a chapter of the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers.
One of the group’s anonymous founders wrote in a Signal chat:
“My hope is that DEFT will be a voice for the voiceless. DEFT is the answer to those of you who are pleading to help and feel you’re screaming into the void.”
DEFT is hoping to sign up enough delivery service providers to force Amazon to give them a voice in crafting new policies. So like a union? Am I allowed to use that word?
Amazon has historically not reacted kindly to unionization, which is why DEFT's founders are taking steps to protect members’ identities and communications from the company. After consulting with a military veteran, they've even gone as far as creating a structure of five person “cells” to keep members of the larger organization anonymous in the event that one cell is compromised.
Well, that certainly speaks volumes about the state of labor rights in the U.S. How fortunate for our country that Amazon employees contractors have to rely on military concealment tactics to maintain secrecy and avoid retaliation from one of the country's largest employers.