Teamsters Claim Union Win for Amazon Yard Drivers in Indiana; Amazon Denies It

The Teamsters say they have organized the drivers who move trucks around Amazon’s OIL9 facility in Merrillville, Indiana, and are demanding the company bargain a contract. Amazon says no union vote happened there and that the Teamsters do not represent workers at any Amazon site, FreightWaves reported.

The dispute turns on how the union got there. No NLRB election for the Merrillville site appears in the agency’s records, which points to a card check drive, a route that two recent legal moves have put in doubt.

Who the drivers are

The workers are Transportation Operations Management (TOM) drivers. They move trucks inside the boundaries of an Amazon facility and are paid directly by Amazon, so they receive a W-2 from the company. That separates them from the drivers who bring packages to customers’ homes, who work for Amazon’s delivery service partners (DSPs). The Teamsters have argued, including before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), that Amazon controls those contractors so tightly that it is their real employer.

The union says it had already organized TOM drivers at Amazon’s SDF9 site in Shepherdsville, Ky., and the MCI9 site in Liberty, Mo.

What the Teamsters say

In a statement, the union said the Merrillville drivers had marched on management to demand that Amazon recognize the union and negotiate. Randy Korgan, who directs the Teamsters’ Amazon division, said the union was proud to add the OIL9 drivers and called them the first group of workers in their state to join. TOM driver Charles Hurd said in the statement that Amazon would not listen to drivers one at a time and that the group looks forward to its first contract.

The Teamsters did not answer FreightWaves’ emails about the claim.

What Amazon says

Amazon told FreightWaves that no unionization took place at the Indiana facility and called the claim part of a “false narrative.” The company accused the union of misleading the public about whom it represents and said it doubts the new claim is accurate. Amazon added that the Teamsters are not a certified bargaining representative at any of its facilities.

Why card check matters here

Under card check, a union collects signed cards from a majority of workers in a unit and presents them to the employer as a demand for recognition, without a government-run vote. Amazon and its DSPs usually ignore these petitions, according to FreightWaves.

Since August 2023, the NLRB’s Cemex decision, from a case involving Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, has given that path legal support. In an earlier Teamsters case against Amazon, NLRB Administrative Law Judge Michael Silverstein wrote that Cemex created a new way for unions to win recognition without filing for an election.

That support is weakening. In March, a divided Sixth Circuit appeals court ruled in a Teamsters case against distiller Brown Forman that the NLRB overstepped its authority with Cemex, the first federal court to reject the precedent. In August, NLRB General Counsel Crystal Stowe Carey asked the board in a memo to revisit several precedents, Cemex among them.

What it means for drivers

For Amazon’s yard and delivery drivers, a claimed union is a long way from a contract. Amazon workers in Staten Island, N.Y., won a formal NLRB election, and Amazon still has not signed a collective bargaining agreement with any union.

Elections are working elsewhere for the Teamsters. NLRB records show five Teamsters votes in the last two months. The union won four, at Shelby Transport in Indianapolis, DP World Contract Logistics in Detroit, Comprehensive Logistics in Philadelphia and MV Transportation in Raleigh, N.C. It lost at U.S. Foods in Arizona.

Drivers following the case can watch whether the NLRB board acts on the general counsel’s request to revisit Cemex, which would decide whether card check claims like the one in Merrillville carry legal weight.

Source: FreightWaves