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AIPROPX ReportForbes · 3h ago
Delivery Protection Act’ Pits NYC Mayor Mamdani And The Teamsters Against Amazon
Retail ‘Delivery Protection Act’ Pits NYC Mayor Mamdani And The Teamsters Against Amazon By Pamela N. Danziger ,
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Pam Danziger reports on retail, focused on the luxury consumer market. Follow Author Aug 15, 2026, 08:30am EDT Topline A coalition of Amazon Teamsters, the Alliance for a Greater New York and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union rallied at New York City Hall to push passage of the Mayor Zohran Mamdani-backed “Delivery Protection Act” that would require Amazon to employ all last-mile delivery drivers in the city rather than rely on subcontractors.
The Delivery Protection Act would prohibit Amazon, FedEx and other logistics companies from using third-party contractors for last-mile deliveries and core warehouse services throughout the five New York City boroughs.
Joining the Teamsters in support of the Act are the AFL-CIO-affiliated New York City Central Labor Council and a supermajority of city council members.
Opposition comes from a broad-based business coalition —Amazon, FedEx, logistics and trucking firms, all five borough chambers of commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Tech: NYC, the Supply Chain Federation, the Trucking Association of New York, the Five Borough Jobs Campaign and others.
A study commissioned by the Five Borough Jobs Campaign estimated passage would increase annual delivery costs to New York households by $664 and threaten more than 10,000 city workers.
With the bill pending a City Council vote, supporters have intensified their efforts to push the vote forward after Mayor Mamdani threw his support behind it—calling Amazon’s contractor-based delivery model exploitative and a danger to NYC workers, drivers and pedestrians.
First introduced last September by Queens council member Tiffany Cabán and carried over into 2026, the Delivery Protection Act would require a license to operate any last-mile facilities in the city and mandate that all delivery and warehouse hubs operate with employees not contract workers. Supporters of the Act claim that Amazon uses its third-party Delivery Service Providers model to “underpay workers, ignore unsafe working conditions, and shield itself from accountability when it breaks the law or endangers communities.”
“Corporations like Amazon build billion-dollar business models by insulating themselves from accountability through a system of exploitative subcontracting,” said Mayor Mamdani. Calling the Delivery Protection Act a commonsense regulation to protect workers, he added, “It’s time to end the subcontracting model that puts profits over people and build an economy that works for working New Yorkers.”
Amazon argues the Delivery Protect Act would negatively impact more than 40 Delivery Service Providers and threaten over 5,000 jobs at these small business partners. In testimony submitted in April, the company said that DSP drivers earn an average of nearly $24 per hour in wages, with full-time drivers receiving health care coverage and paid time off that exceed city minimums. Many DSP firms also offer additional benefits, including retirement accounts and tuition reimbursement. Amazon also cited more than $2.5 billion invested in safety initiatives since 2019, including an in-person Last Mile Driver Academy that has trained over 180,000 drivers, camera-equipped delivery vans and more than 800 electric cargo bikes deployed in Manhattan and Brooklyn. If the Act passes, Amazon warned it may be forced to relocate its 10 distribution centers outside New York City, resulting in slower delivery times to customers.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board argues that the Delivery Protect Act is a test case for the Teamsters and its allies to eliminate subcontracted delivery work nationwide. The board points to United Parcel Service laying off tens of thousands of workers, attributing the cuts in part to the cost of its 2023 Teamsters labor contract. It claims Amazon’s flexible and efficient third-party DPS network is now delivering many of the packages that unionized UPS drivers would previously have handled. Noting that the National Labor Relations Act prohibits subcontracted and independent contractors to unionize, the board wrote, “Abolishing the independent contracting model has been a longtime goal of the political left, and they don’t mind if they run over the little guy in the process.”
Amazon has been at odds with the New York political establishment before. In 2019, Amazon scuttled plans to open a second NYC headquarters in Queens after opposition from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, state senators and local activists—a move that cost the city an estimated 25,000 high-paying jobs. At the time, Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted the decision, stating “a small group of politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community.”
Amazon Workers Rally at NYC City Hall as Delivery Bill Gains Momentum (Sourcing Journal)
Mamdani Wants to Deliver Amazon to the Teamsters (Wall Street Journal)
A Fight Brews Between Mamdani and Amazon Over Delivery Workers (New York Times)
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