Libby Rainey
is a general assignment reporter. She covers the news that shapes Los Angeles and how people change the city in return.
Published December 2, 2024 10:05 AM
Subcontracted small businesses make up a substantial part of Amazon's logistics web.
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Libby Rainey
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LAist
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Topline:
An effort to unionize Amazon’s delivery drivers faces an unusual initial challenge: they don't technically work for Amazon. Here's a look at the legal battle shaking out for Southern California drivers.
Why now: It started more than a year ago in Palmdale, when one group of drivers announced they'd formed a union. More recently, drivers in Victorville and Commerce have joined the cause.
Why does it matter: These union efforts are setting up a larger legal battle: Amazon says the drivers are not their employees. The Teamsters say Amazon is their joint employer, which would mean the tech giant has to bargain with the workers accordingly.
Keep reading… for more on Amazon's business model, driver conditions and the lengthy road ahead for the legal dispute.
An effort to unionize Amazon’s delivery drivers faces an unusual initial challenge: they don't work for Amazon.
Sure, the drivers wear Amazon-labeled uniforms. They also drive the Amazon-branded vehicles that seem to populate every street corner, especially during the holiday season. But much of Amazon's last-mile delivery system is subcontracted to a web of smaller businesses called delivery service partners.
It's a setup that some drivers in Southern California say is a sham.
"Amazon ultimately calls the shots," said Daniel Herrera, a driver in Victorville. "They're the ones that put our routes out."
Those drivers are challenging Amazon's business model through an ongoing union drive with the Teamsters — one of the nation's largest and most powerful labor unions. It started more than a year ago in Palmdale, when a group of drivers for one Delivery Service Partner announced they planned to form a union. More recently, drivers in Victorville and the city of Industry have joined the cause.
These union efforts are setting up a larger legal battle: Amazon says these drivers are not their employees. The Teamsters say Amazon is their joint employer, which would mean the tech giant has to bargain with the workers accordingly.
That allegation got a boost inlate September, when the National Labor Relations Board's Los Angeles region issued a complaint naming Amazon as a joint employer of its delivery drivers in Palmdale. Amazon denied the claim.
“As we’ve said all along, there is no merit to any of these claims. We look forward to showing that as the legal process continues and expect the few remaining allegations will be dismissed as well," Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards said in a statement.
What’s a Delivery Service Partner?
Subcontracted small businesses make up a substantial part of Amazon's logistics web. Over the past five years, some 390,000 people have driven for delivery service partners across19 countries, according to Amazon.
"While DSPs as independent businesses hire and manage their own employees, they receive support from Amazon to help them be successful," Amazon's website states.
Amazon drivers work for third party small business called delivery service partners. But some of them say that Amazon should be considered their employer.
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Libby Rainey
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LAist
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Amazon technology creates driver routes, and Amazon says that all its company-branded vehicles all have "in-vehicle camera safety technology." It's dynamics like these that have led the Teamsters and others to say Amazon is the drivers' true boss.
"It's set up and modeled so that it can control the delivery services, yet pretend that it's not controlling the delivery services," said Catherine Creighton with Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. "It wants one, [to] avoid liability if there are accidents or problems with the delivery system. And No. 2, avoid a unionized workforce."
When 84 drivers in Palmdale announced they had reached a contract agreement with a Delivery Service Partner last year, it was the beginning of the fight at the National Labor Relations Board over Amazon's employer status.
"These workers in Palmdale demanded that Amazon recognize them as drivers and demanded that Amazon come to the table, because clearly Amazon has so much control over these operations," said Randy Korgan, director of the Teamsters' Amazon division.
Around the same time, Amazon canceled its contract with that subcontractor and the drivers lost their jobs. But it also sparked a wider organizing drive. While the Teamsters filed unfair labor charges with the NLRB, drivers picketed at the Palmdale facility and other Amazon hubs.
It was one of those demonstrations that caught the attention of Vanessa Valdez, a driver at an Amazon delivery center in the City of Industry.
"I remember [them saying] 'You deserve more…Are you tired of this?'" Valdez said.
This fall, drivers at four delivery service partners at a Victorville Amazon facility and two at a City of Industry location signed union cards with the Teamsters and demanded union recognition.
"The truth is that there are multiple independent small businesses that deliver on our behalf from these facilities, and none of them are Amazon employees,”Amazon's spokesperson said in response.
Delivering Amazon packages
Drivers who have joined the union drive say they want to negotiate with Amazon over crushing quotas, broken down vans and pay.
"We skip our 15 minute breaks because the quantity is so high," said Rubie Wiggins, another driver in the City of Industry who said she wants more drivers to unionize. "You're constantly at a battle with yourself."
Multiple drivers in Los Angeles report not having the time or space to use the bathroom while delivering packages.
Labor relations under Trump
A hearing on the Palmdale charges is scheduled for March, and the dispute is likely to continue to wind through the courts after that, according to Catherine Creighton at Cornell.
By then, the Teamsters will face a changed landscape at the national level with President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House.
While the legal dispute with Amazon continues to play out, the Teamsters have made it clear they'll continue to organize more drivers.
Veena Dubal, a professor of law at UC Irvine, says it's an organizing strategy that plays the long game.
"It's about creating conversations with the delivery service providers themselves, creating conversations with the workers so that they see their boss as being Amazon and not the DSP," Dubal said. "And using these legal mechanisms, even if they're not immediately successful, to change how people think about it."
Kevin Tidmarsh
is a producer for LAist, covering news and culture. He’s been an audio/web journalist for about a decade.
Published January 1, 2026 6:21 PM
Conditions along the Santa Ana River can become dangerous during heavy rains.
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Courtesy Orange County Public Works
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Topline:
An unidentified body was recovered from the bed of the Santa Ana River just before noon on Jan. 1, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.
What we know: Officials said a witness called 911 to report a person in the riverbed near the intersection of Warner Avenue and Harbor Boulevard in Santa Ana. The person traveled about two miles downstream before the search and rescue crew recovered their body in the city of Fountain Valley.
The response: About 60 firefighters from OCFA and the Fountain Valley and Costa Mesa fire departments contributed to the water rescue effort.
The danger of moving water: With more rain in the forecast this weekend, keep in mind that just six inches of fast-moving water can knock down most people, while 12 inches can carry away most cars.
How to stay safe: Emergency officials recommend limiting travel as much as possible during heavy rain and floods, including by car. If you see flooding in your path, remember the slogan, “Turn around, don’t drown.” LAist also has a guide on driving safely in the rain.
Manny Ruiz strikes alongside other workers with Teamsters 2785 at Amazon Warehouse DCK6 in the Bayview District in San Francisco on Dec. 19, 2024. Amazon workers at multiple facilities across the U.S. went on strike to fight for a union contract.
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Jungho Kim for CalMatters
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Under a law taking effect Jan. 1, California seeks to uphold the labor and unionization rights of private-sector employees, as the federal agency that has held that power for decades is in limbo.
Where things stand: The new law’s future is unclear because the Trump administration is challenging it.
Why now: The law, which grants more powers to the California Public Employment Relations Board, is a response to the National Labor Relations Board lacking a quorum. President Donald Trump fired the NLRB’s chairperson, Gwynne Wilcox, days after he began his second term in January. His two nominees to the board have yet to be confirmed, so the federal board has been without the three members it needs for a quorum for months.
California under a law taking effect today seeks to uphold the labor and unionization rights of private-sector employees, as the federal agency that has held that power for decades is in limbo.
But the new law’s future is unclear because the Trump administration is challenging it.
The law, which grants more powers to the California Public Employment Relations Board, is a response to the National Labor Relations Board lacking a quorum.
President Donald Trump fired the NLRB’s chairperson, Gwynne Wilcox, days after he began his second term in January. His two nominees to the board have yet to be confirmed, so the federal board has been without the three members it needs for a quorum for months.
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, the Inglewood Democrat who wrote the bill, said when the governor signed it in September that “California will not sit idly as its workers are systematically denied the right to organize due to employer intransigence or federal inaction.”
The NLRB sued California over the law in October, saying in its lawsuit that the state is trying to assert authority over “areas explicitly reserved for federal oversight.”
On the legal challenge to the law, Terry Schanz, McKinnor’s chief of staff, referred CalMatters to the state attorney general. Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office is responsible for defending the law in court. A spokesperson for Bonta said the office would have nothing to say about it.
With the NLRB unable to fulfill its duties, states are trying to fill the gap in enforcing the National Labor Relations Act, which Congress passed in 1935. But labor experts contacted by CalMatters do not have high hopes for the California law, which is similar to a law passed in New York this year. They said courts, including the Supreme Court, have ruled that states cannot decide matters pertaining to federal labor law because of preemption, the doctrine that a higher authority of law overrides a lower authority.
“It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where the courts do not overturn these (state) laws,” said John Logan, professor and chairperson of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University.
William Gould, a former chairperson of the National Labor Relations Board during the Clinton administration and a professor emeritus at Stanford University, agreed: “In the courts the matter is a dead letter unless (the Supreme Court) shifts gears.”
That’s what the California and U.S. chambers of commerce, along with other business groups, are hoping, according to their amicus brief in support of the Trump administration’s lawsuit against California: “Under California’s view, every state could have its own labor law for private-sector workers. Dozens of laws would overlap and collide.”
The California Labor Federation, an umbrella organization for unions that represents about 2 million California workers, said in an amicus brief that even before Trump fired the NLRB chief, the federal agency’s backlog had been a problem, leading to companies being able to delay bargaining in good faith with their employees’ unions without consequences.
If the California law is overturned, employees who have formed unions but have not succeeded in securing contracts with employers such as Amazon and Starbucks — which are among the companies seeking to have the NLRB declared unconstitutional — may continue to face delays, according to Logan. Or, he said, it’s not clear what would happen if other workers tried to organize and their companies simply fired them.
“The NLRB defunctness is a scandal which cries out for political reform,” Gould said.
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Why now: As the clock struck midnight across time zones, people gathered to celebrate the new year.
Keep reading... for those photos.
As the clock strikes midnight across time zones, people gather to celebrate the new year.
We take a look at the shared joy and traditions in these photos.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Reveler use their smartphones to film the falling balloons and confetti as they celebrate the start of 2026 during the New Year countdown event held at a shopping mall in Beijing, early Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026.
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Andy Wong
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Revellers watch a fireworks and light show for children on Museumplein as part of New Year's Eve celebrations in Amsterdam on December 31, 2025.
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Members of the public gather to celebrate the New Year during the annual bell-tolling ceremony at the Bosingak Pavilion on January 01, 2026 in Seoul, South Korea.
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Fireworks explode over skyscrapers during New Year celebrations on January 01, 2026 in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines.
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People buy batons that read happy New Year 2026 on December 31, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. Thousands lined the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok as the country welcomed the new year.
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Fireworks explode from the Taipei 101 building during the New Year's celebrations in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026.
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Revellers watch the New Year's Eve fireworks from the The Huc Bridge at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi on Jan. 1, 2026.
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People attend the New Year countdown event to celebrate the start of 2026 in the Central district of Hong Kong, on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025.
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Fireworks explode around the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, during New Year's Eve celebrations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026.
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People pose for pictures near illuminated decorations on New Year's Eve in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025.
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Revellers watch fireworks during the New Year celebrations in Karachi on January 1, 2026.
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Iraqis gather in Baghdad's Al-Zawraa Park during New Year's Eve celebrations on December 31, 2025.
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Onlookers stand beside light ornaments on New Year's Eve at Bakrkoy Square in Istanbul on Dec. 31, 2025.
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People strike a giant bell to celebrate the New Year at the Zojoji Buddhist temple, minutes after midnight Thursday Jan. 1, 2026, in Tokyo.
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A couple takes a selfie as the last sunset of 2025 is seen over the Mediterranean Sea in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025.
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People watch and take photos as the Ferris wheel displays "Happy New Year" in 16 different languages at Pacific Park on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025 in Santa Monica.
Millions of Americans are facing higher health care premiums in the new year after Congress allowed Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire.
Where things stand: Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of senators worked to strike a compromise that could resurrect the enhanced ACA premium tax credits — potentially blunting the blow of rising monthly payments for Obamacare enrollees.
What's next: Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who is part of that effort, says he thinks the Senate can pass a "retroactive" Affordable Care Act subsidy extension, but "we need President Trump."
Millions of Americans are facing higher health care premiums in the new year after Congress allowed Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire. But earlier this week, a bipartisan group of senators worked to strike a compromise that could resurrect the enhanced ACA premium tax credits — potentially blunting the blow of rising monthly payments for Obamacare enrollees.
"There's a number of Republican and Democratic senators who are seeing what a disaster this will be for families that they represent," Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said on Morning Edition Thursday. "That's the common ground here, and it's a doable thing."
Welch said he joined a bipartisan call Tuesday — first reported by Punchbowl News — in which a handful of senators charted out a possible health care compromise.
"We could extend the credits for a couple of years, we could reform it," Welch said of the call. "You could put an income cap, you could have a copay, you could have penalties on insurers who commit fraud. You actually could introduce some cost saving reductions that have bipartisan support."
But according to Welch, this legislation is only doable with President Trump's blessing.
"It would require that President Trump play a major role in this, because he has such influence over the Republican majority in the House and even in the Senate," Welch said.
Last fall, Republicans and Democrats fought bitterly over the Obamacare subsidy extension, causing a political standoff that led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Meanwhile, Trump has remained relatively hands-off, withholding his support for any health care legislation.
Despite these obstacles, Welch said he believes the jump in prices that people across the country now face will break the logjam in Congress.
"A farmer in Vermont, their premium is going to go from $900 a month to $3,200, a month," Welch said. "So they're going to really face sticker shock. There's going to be a secondary impact, because the hospitals, particularly in rural areas, are going to lose revenue."
But even if the Senate advanced a compromise bill on the ACA, the House would also have to get behind it. And the lower chamber has its own bipartisan effort on an ACA subsidy extension.
Just before the recess began in mid-December, four House Republicans joined Democrats in signing a discharge petition on a three-year extension of the ACA subsidies — forcing a floor vote on the bill when the House returns.
Hours after bucking House Speaker Mike Johnson and joining Democrats, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., told Morning Editionback in December that he thinks this vote will get even more Republican support.
"I don't like the clean extension without any income cap," Fitzpatrick said. "But given the choice between a clean three-year extension and letting them expire, that's not a hard choice for me. And I suspect many of my other colleagues are going to view it the same way."
Fitzpatrick and Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., have held meetings with moderate senators on legislative paths to extend the ACA subsidies, a source familiar with the talks but not authorized to speak publicly tells NPR.
The Senate returns on Jan. 5 and the House comes back to Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.
