TEAMSTERS, ALLIES RELEASE REPORT ON AMAZON VIOLATIONS OF NEW YORK WARN ACT

 Amazon Leads State in Killing Logistics Jobs, Teamsters File Complaint with New York Department of Labor

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Teamsters were joined by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the Action Lab, and the Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN) in releasing a report exposing Amazon as the leading violator of the New York State Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (NY WARN) Act.

The union simultaneously filed a complaint with the New York Department of Labor over Amazon's WARN Act violations, demanding that the Office of the Commissioner of Labor investigate Amazon's control of its third-party contractors, or Delivery Service Partners (DSPs), and the company's failure to follow the law. Amazon uses DSPs as shell corporations to shield itself from the legal responsibility the company owes to its workforce.

"This is yet another reason why Amazon is a parasitic white-collar crime syndicate," said Randy Korgan, Director of the Teamsters Amazon Division. "Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, and the rest of the crooks who run this company can't find a labor law that they don't want to violate, but the Teamsters have bad news for Amazon: the law has a way of catching up with you."

Most DSPs have Amazon as their only "customer," so when Amazon terminates a contract, the entire DSP shuts down. The NY WARN Act requires private employers with more than 50 workers in the state to either provide severance or give workers at least 90 days advance written notice before mass layoffs affecting 25 people or more.

"Amazon sells itself to communities as a 'job creator,' but today's revelations should dispel that notion completely," said Tom Gesualdi, President of Teamsters Joint Council 16. "In reality, Amazon has killed more jobs in the logistics industry than any other company in New York. The Teamsters and our allies will not allow Amazon to continue harming its workers or our communities with its illegal actions."

The report demonstrates that since 2018, Amazon has closed 35 DSPs in the state, resulting in the loss of over 3,500 jobs. Amazon's job-killing makes up an outsized percentage of layoffs across New York's entire transportation and warehousing industry. A full 25 percent of all workers laid off in the industry since 2023 have been Amazon drivers. A majority of Amazon drivers never received the advance notice required by law, and Amazon may owe as much as $11 million in back wages.

"I worked for two DSPs that Amazon closed without enough notice or severance, leaving me and my family stranded," said Maria Degante, who worked at Amazon's DBK4 location in Queens. "But we aren't going away quietly. My co-workers and I are organizing to demand that Amazon pay us what we are owed and pass the Delivery Protection Act at the New York City Council, so this never happens to another driver."

The Delivery Protection Act, which Teamsters and their allies are campaigning to pass in New York City, which would end Amazon's subcontracting shell game and force the company to directly hire its drivers.

"This report, which shows frequent mass layoffs and WARN Act violations at Amazon's captive DSPs, highlights that they are not bona fide independent businesses but pawns of a giant corporation that needs to be held accountable for their operations," said Paul Sonn, State Policy Program Director at NELP. "New York City's proposed Delivery Protection Act would do just that — and the city council should act swiftly to approve it."

"Amazon uses and abuses workers, then throws them away. And guess what: the DSPs Amazon claims to protect are no less vulnerable," said Daisy Chung, ALIGN Campaigns Director. "Today's report adds to the pile of evidence that Amazon will put profit over people every time, even if they have to kill jobs, hurt workers, and destroy communities to do it. We need the Delivery Protection Act now to demand justice for Amazon workers and force a trillion-dollar company to answer for their harms."

"This new data shows that Amazon is disproportionately behind sudden, permanent closures in the transportation and warehousing sector in New York — and it's happening again and again," said Irene Tung, Director of Program and Policy at the Action Lab. "The company is using a shell game to lay off delivery drivers without giving them notice as required under the law, then leaving them to fight for backpay they're often never able to collect. The Delivery Protection Act is urgently needed to make Amazon directly accountable to the drivers whose livelihoods it controls. New York must investigate this pattern, and the City Council must move swiftly to pass this common-sense reform."

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents over 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on X @Teamsters and on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:
Matt McQuaid, (771) 241-0015
[email protected]

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SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters