Unions and Environmental Groups Push Council To Pass Delivery Protection Act

Streetsblog provides high-quality journalism and analysis for free — which is something to be celebrated in an era of paywalls. Once a year, we ask for your tax-deductible donations to support our reporters and editors as they advance the movement to end car dependency in our communities.

If you already support our work, thank you! If not, can we ask for your help? This year's fundraiser includes a special gift for our biggest supporters. Don't miss out.

Together, we can create a more livable, walkable, bikeable, equitable and enjoyable city for all. Happy holidays from the Streetsblog team!

Labor unions and environmental advocates are pleading with Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to bring the overwhelmingly popular “Delivery Protection Act” to a vote before the end of session.

On Thursday, a group of 11 organizations, including the National Employment Law Project, the Teamsters, and the New York City Central Labor Council, sent a letter to Adams, who has one last chance to move the bill, which has a 39-member super-majority of bi-partisan support, at the Dec. 18 stated meeting. 

“This urgent legislation deserves a hearing and a vote immediately,” the letter reads. “Passing the Delivery Protection Act would be a capstone for the legacy of this City Council by protecting the safety of workers, the safety of communities, and public health.” 

And the labor groups are not alone in trying to push the Speaker to get the bill over the finish line. Last month, on Nov. 21, a group of environmental non-profits sent a similar letter to Speaker Adams. The groups say Adams has not responded. 

On Thursday, at a press conference before the penultimate Council meeting of the year, Adams would not elaborate on the legislative process, only reassuring reporters that the process is ongoing.

“That bill, like a lot of others, takes a lot of negotiation,” she told Streetsblog. “I typically don’t weigh in on legislation that we are still negotiating. All I can say is we are continuing.”

But Council Member Tiffany Caban (D-Astoria) wants urgency from the Speaker.

"We have to move with the same urgency last-mile workers bring every day getting packages from warehouses to our door,” she told Streetsblog in a statement. “The Delivery Protection Act has a bipartisan coalition behind it, with 39 Council sponsors and broad support from street safety, labor, and environmental groups. It will deliver dignity and safety for workers and every New Yorker. The Council must pass the Delivery Protection Act.”

Currently, all delivery workers in trucks, vans, and on e-bikes with Amazon uniforms delivering Amazon packages do not technically work for the e-commerce giant. Instead Amazon contracts a network of Delivery Service Partners. The bill, Intro 1396, would force Amazon and other delivery companies that use last-mile warehouses to ditch the sub-contracting model and directly hire their drivers and micro-mobility riders.

Last-mile warehouses are a relatively new challenge for the city to regulate. Eighteen warehouses have opened since 2015 — 11 since 2020 — clustered in neighborhoods like East New York and Red Hook in Brooklyn and Maspeth in Queens. These sites have had devastating effects on the communities that surround them, environmental justice groups charge. 

“Due to antiquated zoning regulations, these facilities are disproportionately clustered in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods,” reads the Nov. 21 letter signed by the Environmental Justice Alliance, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Mothers on the Move, THE POINT, Newtown Creek Alliance, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, and El Puente. “The unregulated siting of these facilities has brought an unaccountable number of diesel truck traffic, air pollution, and vehicle congestion, threatening public health and exacerbating environmental injustices.”

DSP workers at Amazon’s Maspeth warehouse unionized under the Teamsters banner last year, and workers have been sounding the alarm on the link between the precarious employment model and street safety.

A recent comptroller’s report found that traffic injuries are increasing near last-mile warehouses. Plus, advocates say, holding companies like Amazon directly responsible for drivers will force them to incentivize safety, because the liability will be on the company. 

"Communities and DSP workers often struggle to hold these larger delivery corporations directly responsible when the firm shifts legal liability into captive smaller firms [DSP's]. The result is higher community costs, and exploited workforce, and zero corporate accountability," the letter from labor leaders reads.

And there is evidence that these warehouses are increasing street-level danger. At 14 out of the 18 last-mile warehouses studied by the comptroller, there was an average increase in crashes of 10 percent on surrounding streets. Maspeth has fared the worst; Crashes rose by 53 percent and 48 percent, respectively, on streets surrounding its two last-mile facilities.

And truck-involved crashes show that these warehouses bring a whole new type of danger to an area. Within the same half-mile radius of the 18 sites, injury-causing crashes involving trucks grew by 137 percent.

Amazon has consistently disputed this, citing its safety investments and claiming to Streetsblog that there has been a 32-percent decrease in "behaviors like speeding and distracted driving." But the company has not shared where that number comes from.

The company also slammed the comptroller's report as incomplete and accused it of being "designed to reach conclusions from the start."