Amazon subcontracts to local courier companies that use drivers who are considered independence contractors. These companies are less expensive than Fedex or UPS and they are not unionized. Amazon provides them with phones that track their packages and delivery progress, and workers need to average a delivery every 2 minutes in order to meet demand.
Workers in Massachusetts and California had challenged their designation as 'independent contractors'
The Seattle City Council voted 8-0 Monday afternoon to enact an ordinance giving taxi, for-hire and Uber drivers the ability to unionize. The backdrop for the council’s vote is a nationwide conversation about what role governments should play in the country’s growing app-powered gig economy.
No one is responsible for paying cabbies a “minimum wage,” because these drivers are not considered employees. But Callahan and a group of Chicago cab drivers are challenging that long-held assumption. Under the name “Cab Drivers for Justice,” or, as most call it, “Cabbies for Justice,” they are pursuing what could be a landmark legal case.
In recent months, regulators have demanded millions of dollars from companies that hired independent contractors to hang drywall, install cable, staff call centers, give manicures and perform other jobs in which the government said workers were really functioning as company employees.
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