It Could Happen Here - How the ‘Delivery Protection Act’ Takes on Amazon 

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

Garrison talks with Matt and Olivia from the NYC-DSA Labor Working Group about how Amazon uses subcontractors to exploit “last mile” delivery drivers and how a new bill could hold Amazon accountable and strengthen workers' ability to organize.  Sources: https://act.socialists.nyc/dpa-letter https://actionnetwork.org/events/rally-to-pass-the-delivery-protection-act-3 https://www.instagram.com/nycdsa/ https://www.instagram.com/nycdsalabor/  https://www.nyc.gov/site/dca/workers/workersrights/Delivery-Workers.page  https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/08/mayor-mamdani-backs--delivery-protection-act--to-rein-in-amazon- https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/09/mayor-mamdani-wins-record--131-5-million-from-doordash-for-deliv https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-06-02/amazon-trump-settlement-win-showed-just-how-tough-delivery-drivers-have-it https://hearinghearings.nyc/hearings/committee-on-consumer-and-worker-protection-requiring-the-licensing-of-last-mile-facilities/  https://teamster.org/2026/08/amazon-teamsters-and-allies-picket-city-hall-for-the-delivery-protection-act/ https://teamster.org/2025/09/amazon-teamsters-rally-after-attack-on-workers-in-queens/ https://teamster.org/2026/08/teamsters-allies-release-report-on-amazon-violations-of-new-york-warn-act/ https://teamster.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/10424UPSNATIONALMASTERFINAL.pdf  https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/fast-shipping-slow-justice-traffic-worker-and-climate-hazards-in-last-mile-delivery/  https://www.staffingindustry.com/news/global-daily-news/nycs-delivery-protection-act-would-make-last-mile-delivery-workers-employees  https://www.wsj.com/business/new-jersey-sues-amazon-alleging-delivery-network-illegally-suppresses-wages-f6d6faa7  https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-testimony-delivery-protection-act-new-york-city https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2026/08/15/delivery-protection-act-pits-nyc-mayor-mamdani-and-the-teamsters-against-amazon/  https://nysfocus.com/2026/07/23/amazon-new-york-last-mile-delivery-bill See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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If money makes the world go round, delivery workers, New York City go round. From delivering morning coffee to sweet green bowl slop or midnight Taco Bell, food delivery workers shuttle snacks and treats 24-7 via bicycle and scooter. While a network of last-mile couriers fill my apartment lobby with Amazon packages. Seriously, one of my new, more well-off neighbors must like never go to the store. They get every single thing delivered. I'm talking almost 10 Amazon packages a day for the same person.

But there's an odd little quirk with how Amazon transports orders from the fulfillment center to your doorstep, in that they don't. The worker delivering your Amazon package may be wearing an Amazon vest, driving an Amazon van, and peeing in a water bottle so they don't fall behind on a delivery route scheduled by Amazon. but technically that worker is not employed by Amazon. They work for a subcontractor, which Amazon calls a delivery service partner or a DSP. Why might that be?

Picture this. A hurricane is rolling into town, but Amazon still needs to deliver those prime two-day orders. While drivers are in the middle of their route, the storm suddenly gets worse, and a driver gets into a bad accident. Because that driver is technically employed by a subcontractor, Amazon isn't responsible for the well-being of the worker

and can't be held liable for any damages. Then, let's say those drivers unionize due to dangerous working conditions. Rather than negotiate with the union, Amazon can just terminate their contract with the delivery service partner. I'm Garrison Davis, and this is It Could Happen Here. And this is one of those, this is already happening type stories, and actually has been for some time, but now people are organizing to do something about it. About a year ago, the Teamsters teamed up with Democratic Socialist New York City Council member Tiffany Caban

to introduce Bill 05182026, also known as the delivery Protection Act, which, among other things, would require companies like Amazon to actually employ the drivers and warehouse workers who handle the so-called last mile of delivery, getting your package from the local warehouse to your doorstep. The bill was reintroduced this past February, and for the past few months, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America have been organizing to push the bill over the finish line. My name's Mamoreska. Olivia and I are both on the Labor Working Group Organizing Committee for NYCDSA. I am the legislative coordinator, the Labor Legislative Coordinator

for the group. I'm Olivia and I serve on both the Labor Working Group Organizing Committee as well as the steering committee for the entire chapter. Currently, anyone you see delivering packages in New York City to you, you know, to your apartment building, to your house, wearing the Amazon vest with the Amazon truck, all of those people are subcontractors. They work out of what are called delivery service providers or your own BSPs. And these, again, kind of basic subcontractors. But the problem with that model is that Amazon does that to avoid all accountability either to their workers or to the city. So anytime that workers express dissatisfaction with working conditions or, you know, seem like they're organizing because of those conditions,

or if the city is noticing that one of these DSPs is causing way more incidents on the road than other providers of delivery. Anything like that happens and people start looking into one of these DSPs, Amazon will just cut their contract with the subcontractor and say, you know, that wasn't us. That was, you know, Matt Moreska LLC or Garrison Davis LLC. It's nothing to do with me. You know, it sounds silly, but it's actually pretty strong legal defense, apparently. The Delivery Protection Act seeks to change all that. The bill would require last-mile delivery facilities to obtain a license from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and Establish Minimum Safety, Training, and Worker Protection standards. But the big thing this bill would do is force Amazon and other companies that use third-party contractors to directly employ their delivery and warehouse workers.

According to the office of Mayor Zoramamdani, the Delivery Protection Act would give the city the tools to regulate last-mile operations and ensure major companies like Amazon are responsible for their workers and the consequences of the business decisions they make. So what this bill does is mandate that any package delivery service from Amazon

or another large logistical company coming into New York City has to directly employ drivers. So that means all of these drivers now in those vests, in those Amazon trucks need to be directly employed by Amazon, which means that Amazon is both directly responsible for any problems they cause on the road or their emissions or things like that. And also means that if their workers start organizing, Amazon can't just cut them all and replace them with different people nearly as easily. So beyond that, that's the main bulk of it.

It also does give workers extra protections for expressing their organizing rights on the job. So it gets close to giving them what we might call just cause protections on the job, although it's not quite that strong. But that means it's much harder for them to be fired for speaking up. And then it also allows for independent safety inspectors to go into these warehouses and provide the education need to make sure the drivers are safe, and also New Yorkers are safe when they're delivering their packages. So it's really a holistic bill to regulate Amazon in the city

and especially make sure that the workers are protected and have their rights to organize protected. And that protection is really important, because right now, if a delivery driver gets hurt or gets into an accident, because those drivers technically work for a, quote, third party, Amazon can't be held liable, even when it's Amazon who orders, quote, delivery service partners to send out drivers in dangerous weather conditions. A Bloomberg investigation from earlier this year detailed a series of such incidents. with a delivery service partner in Southern California. In summer of 2022, Amazon complained to the DSP that drivers were falling behind on their schedule while temperatures reached 107 degrees.

The DSP manager told an Amazon rep that Amazon failed to apply their own policy on easing workloads during extreme heat, but the Amazon rep responded by saying it was too late to change the day's delivery assignments, and the manager would need a written affidavit to prove that workers were too sick to perform, and Amazon threatened breach of contract if packages were delayed. Later that winter, during a historic storm, an Amazon rep told this DSP that, quote, delivery must be attempted, despite flash flooding, road closures, and grounded

flights. So drivers were dispatched out of fear that Amazon might terminate their DSP contract. But then a few months later, their contract was cut anyway after the workers tried to form a union. And this is not an isolated incident. Per Bloomberg, the Teamsters have filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board accusing Amazon of terminating contracts with several DSPs, because the workers unionized. Just a few weeks before the Delivery Protection Act was introduced last year, Amazon fired over 150 unionized delivery drivers in Queens by cutting ties with the third-party delivery service partner.

Even calling DSPs, quote, third parties is misleading because they don't operate as such. Everything about how they run is controlled by. by Amazon. Through a FOIA request, Bloomberg was able to obtain thousands of pages of confidential Amazon records related to an NLRB case against Amazon for firing that DSP in California after its workers unionized. A case, by the way, that was settled in favor of Amazon after Trump appointed a former Amazon lawyer to serve as National Labor Relations Board General Counsel. But That's another episode. Per Bloomberg, these confidential company documents,

quote, lay bare Amazon's intimate and intensive regulation of workers, it insists, aren't its employees, including governing which drivers DSPs can hire, when they work, what they wear, what they say, how they smell, and much more. Amazon requires that DSPs make drivers sign non-disclosure agreements and take drug tests, an Amazon rep deems appropriate. On the job, drivers are required to wear Amazon polos and Amazon pants or shorts

with the options of an Amazon hat, never to be worn backward, and an Amazon coat. Amazon also requires that drivers be, quote, neat and clean, including, quote, prevention of unpleasant breath or body odor, modest perfume slash cologne, and clean teeth, face slash ears, fingernails, and hair, unquote. If Amazon isn't satisfied with a particular driver, it can, quote, deactivate them, unilaterally terminating their authorization to deliver its packages. According to company records, Amazon also formulates performance rankings of DSP drivers and creates leaderboards for each DSP owner ranking each of their staff.

Amazon's systems also use bright, yes, yellow, orange, or red to mark, quote, areas where a driver has spent excessive amounts of time. Amazon also controls AI-powered cameras in driver's vans, which are supposed to flag unsafe driving. Drivers say the cameras can tag them with undue infractions for yawning or drinking water or just having breasts that obscure their seatbelt, unquote. And because of the high-delts. delivery quotas, drivers are still routinely forced to pee in bottles to meet their assigned deliveries. And due to these new AI-powered cameras, some drivers are forced to move around

Amazon boxes to block the cameras from seeing their genitals before peeing. Amazon also has the live location of all of their drivers, and if something goes wrong, those drivers are supposed to call a hotline operated by Amazon, not the delivery service provider. Amazon offers DSPs templates for job listings and has to approve each new hire, who is then required to attend a multi-day training program also facilitated by Amazon. According to these internal company documents, Amazon outlines seven steps drivers must follow for a successful delivery and instructs drivers to quote, help validate the customer's investment by greeting them with a smile, being enthusiastic, and thanking the customer for choosing Amazon, unquote.

And again, Amazon insists that these drivers do not, in fact, work for Amazon, even though Amazon tells these DSPs that these drivers, quote, represent Amazon to our customers. Bloomberg interviewed a dozen drivers from various DSPs, who described these subcontractors as essentially shell companies that, quote, force Amazon's extreme rules, constant surveillance, and grueling quotas that in some urban areas can reach 30 stops an hour. One says her DSP manager suggested a funnel that she could use to pee into a bottle in her van. Others say their managers told them they must precisely follow any route Amazon's software lays out for them, even if it makes no sense, to help the algorithm learn.

Amazon says that such characterizations are, quote, false. Algorithmic management is a big part of this model. How else could Amazon manage hundreds of thousands of drivers across thousands of allegedly independent subcontract? Amazon plugs all the surveillance data from location tracking, delivery metrics, and live cameras into an AI which creates evolving minimum efficiency standards to apply to all workers, like a form of digital tailorism. Contrast that with the Teamsters UPS union, who, in their last contract, banned inward-facing surveillance cameras and prohibited UPS from disciplining drivers solely based on GPS data, algorithmic metrics, or surveillance technology,

meaning workers can't get punished just for falling below an algorithmically projected quota. And if they do, they can file a grievance. But essentially, this subcontracted last-mile DSP model allows Amazon to maximize delivery speed without having to worry about the workers' well-being and the safety of both the drivers themselves and the neighborhoods on the delivery routes. Amazon gets to pass the buck to these, quote, third-party subcontractors. This whole last-mile scheme is just a method to evade accountability for underpaying workers while forcing them to work at an excruciating pace in unsafe conditions. This record is on.

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Since 2017, 18 such facilities have... have opened across New York City, 11 of them since 2020, driven by the pandemic-era e-commerce boom. In 2017, about 1.1 million packages were delivered every day in the city. By 2024, that number more than doubled to 2.5 million packages per day, indicating that nearly a third of New Yorkers receive packages on a daily basis. According to a report by the city controller, between 2022 and 2024, more than 2,000 severe workplace injuries at last mile facilities were reported to OSHA. The injury rate at Amazon DSPs was nearly five times higher than the national average. And after these last mile facilities opened, surrounding areas saw a 137% rise in truck injury.

crashes. Currently, there are seven ongoing investigations into these third-party last-mow facilities by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. According to the Teamsters who have been fighting to organize Amazon workers in New York City for years, if the Delivery Protection Act gets passed, New York would become the first city to outlaw this exploitative subcontractor model and require companies like Amazon directly employ and therefore be responsible for their last mile delivery workers. And this past summer, the NYCDSA Labor Working Group has been working with the Teamsters to pressure the city council into passing this bill. How long has Delivery Protection Act been something that the organization has been focused on organizing for?

So we decided it should be a priority in the spring. Our term on leadership started in January, and we did a process of looking through city and state bills that we wanted to work on. It really got into high gear over the summer, though, when we knew that our allies and the labor movement were looking to push this for a vote in the fall. So we really started our kickoff in July, and then we've been canvassing a bunch of different districts throughout the city since the start of August, and it's been going ever since. Yeah, and I should just note, you know, that's when we kicked into high gear. But of course, Tiffany Caban, our socialist in office and the city council,

has been working with the Amazon Teamsters and the workers. These Amazon locations for quite a while. And the team that helped draft the legislation and move in and introduce it in city halls been working on it for a lot longer. So we're building on a really strong foundation. What has the organizing around this bill looked like on the ground and also, you know, in the digital sphere? On our end, so as the labor working group, we've really been focused on a large-scale canvassing operation for the bill. So we've been having canvases every two weeks.

We started in a council district of Rita Joseph in Flatbush. we printed a lot of literature with her face on it, demanding that she get onto the bill, and she immediately got on. So I have about 4,000 pieces of literature that I can no longer use, which is a good problem to have. Since then, we made new lit that doesn't have anyone's face on it because we've been flipping more council members. So we did three rounds of canvassing for four different city council members who are also not on the bill. We're going to canvas in Speaker Julie Menon's district because right now we actually already have a super majority on the city council. So really the only thing standing in our way is getting the speaker to introduce it for a vote

because she ultimately really controls what goes up to a vote even if the bill already has a supermajority. So that's the main thing we've been doing. But in addition to that, we've been working with a research team to look into the subcontractors that Amazon uses for these. They call them DSPs, delivery service providers, to get a feel for, who actually owns and operates these and how safe they are for workers, and that's really been something we're working on closely with our Teamster partners, and we've also had a number of rallies in things as well at City Hall.

So that's all really been in the last few months. It's not just Amazon who's using this last-mile subcontractor model. FedEx also uses subcontractors called ground-contracted service providers, and they, too, would be affected by the bill. Obviously, Amazon is the biggest company that would be affected by this, but it's not specifically targeted at Amazon. It's targeted at any business that is operating what's called a last mile delivery operation in the city of New York. So there are other companies that would be affected. I believe Walmart also operates sometimes on this model.

But Amazon is obviously by far the biggest, they have the biggest market share. So of course, they're the ones who are most afraid of this. and afraid of it they are. As of August, Amazon has spent at least $5 million lobbying against the Delivery Protection Act. And according to DSA, that spending has only increased. You know, you asked about in the digital space, certainly our opponents have been hard at work in the digital space. Amazon dropped, how much money you met? Like millions of dollars.

It's at $8 million now, I believe, $8 million. Yeah. And it's not just Amazon. They got their friends in Rebney, the Real Estate Board of New York, to believe that this is also something that they should oppose. So they've been spending money against this and lobbying against this. And there are ads right now, there are digital ads, you know, trying to convince people that this bill is somehow going to be harmful to small businesses, which is ludicrous. Chris, because you know Amazon's biggest killers of the small business. Some of that money has gone to a corporate lobbying group called the Five Bureau Jobs Campaign,

who commissioned a study that miraculously concluded that the Delivery Protection Act would raise annual delivery costs for New York households by $664 a year and threatened 10,000 city jobs. Amazon themselves told the City Council that the Delivery Protection Act would prohibit their agreements with more than 40, quote, small businesses, that is, delivery service partners, and put over 5,000 jobs at risk. Now, the bill includes a retention clause requiring Amazon or whatever company to offer to rehire subcontracted drivers and warehouse workers who were previously employed through a DSP. before offering to hire any other workers as employees. Brendan Griffith, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, put it really well.

To be clear, when these companies raise the alarm of fewer jobs, higher prices, or service reductions, they are describing choices that they may make, not in the best interest of consumers and workers, but to protect their bottom line. And of course, any potential job loss would be the choice of Amazon and not because of this bill. And it's not like Amazon doesn't already regularly lay off these workers. According to a Teamsters report since 2018, Amazon has closed 35 DSPs in New York State, resulting in the loss of over 3,500 jobs. And that was without the bill, which would, of course,

give those workers more protections. Remember, Amazon fired over 150 DSP drivers last year in New York City after they unionized. The most insidious part of this delivery service partner subcontractor arrangement is how it allows Amazon to have this sort of workaround for union busting. When these last-mile delivery workers attempt to unionize, rather than recognize or deal with the union, Amazon can just cut off the entire subcontractor, putting all those workers out of jobs, while Amazon can just switch to a new non-union subcontractor. And this is apparently legal because these workers aren't directly employed by Amazon. So, in effect, it's a legal union busting without actually having to do a legal union busting. So you can see why this model is so attractive to these corporations, because using these delivery

subcontractors gives you this little loophole to avoid negotiating with a union. And it's insane that they're able to get away with this, as much as they fearmonger about how if there's unions, deliveries will cost each household $600 more. That doesn't seem to be the case for UPS, who is still profitable after its unionized delivery drivers secured pay raises in their $2023 contract. To quote the famously socialist outlet, the Wall Street Journal, quote, a large body of research has shown that when companies stop employing, their own workers for tasks and instead push those jobs out to smaller firms or to freelancers, wages and other job protections tend to decline.

The New York bill is, quote, very innovative, said Paul Osterman, a professor emeritus at MIT, and the author of Disposable Workers, a new book on the Transformation of Employment. His own surveys of work arrangements indicate about 12,000. 12% of U.S. workers are contractors employed by intermediaries. So as I've already suggested, this model is a much bigger problem than just Amazon. Amazon has also threatened that if the Delivery Protection Act passes, it would force them to, quote, consider relocating delivery operations outside the city. Specifically, Amazon has threatened to move its distribution centers to New Jersey, which they say would extend delivery times for New York City residents.

But then in August, New Jersey sued Amazon alleging their use of last-mile contractors is illegal. With New Jersey claiming, per the Wall Street Journal, quote, The e-commerce giant illegally used its dominance over its package delivery. network to suppress wages and working conditions for thousands of delivery drivers while preventing them from organizing. Amazon has said the complaint is, quote, not grounded in fact, unquote. So I think it's unlikely Amazon will actually move all of their facilities from New York City to New Jersey, because one, companies never actually move out of New York. And two, doesn't seem like they're going to have much more luck in New Jersey anyway, if the state is claiming the very same

things that lawmakers have here in New York, which has prompted the Delivery Protection Act. But that's the type of propaganda that Amazon is running to try to push back on the bill. And we mentioned Amazon running ads, but they're not just running ads. Around July, I got sent this very oddly worded survey for, from Amazon with all these leading questions about like, would I support a bill that made my deliveries more expensive, take longer, or force independent delivery drivers to work for big corporations? It had maybe like 10 to 15 of these questions that were all phrased very oddly so that they could engineer specific responses so that Amazon could have a survey that shows like X number of New Yorkers

think this bill is a bad idea or think a bill that would do X, Y, Z is a bad idea? You know, they've been sending those all over. People keep texting me. I got the survey mad or sending me pictures of the mailers. But, you know, in reality, we're actually doing the work and, like, mocking on, I think we've knocked over 9,000 doors now. And you actually talk to New Yorkers about the bill. It's extremely popular.

You know, Olivia and I have both done a lot of canvassing for electoral candidates, people like Mayor Mamadani. and it's a lot harder to go canvas for electoral candidates, right? There's a lot of people who tell you, you know, get out of my face. But when you knock on a door and say, this is a bill that's going to get Amazon under control, it's going to help these workers, you know, organize unions and protect their rights. People are immediately on board. Sometimes all you have to say is this bill is, you know, about controlling Amazon.

People are like, where do I sign? So, you know, New Yorkers in reality are really ready to find a way to rein this company in that's more and more controlling every aspect of their lives. So don't worry, you know, the survey notwithstanding. The bill seems to be extremely popular when anyone actually learns what it does. Canadian women are looking for more. More into themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are around them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

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I did have one of the more difficult questions, though. He sits next to me and he sees I'm, I'm on my computer and he goes, big sports fan. And I was like, yeah, actually. And he goes, we think about my Jaguars this year. I realized like, no one's ever asked me that question ever about anything. And I was like, do youvo.

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On a dazzling darts from Matthew Stafford. Big time trades that shake up the NFL. A.J. Brown is loose. And of course, those Seahawks trying to run it back and win another Lombardi trophy. The Seahawks win Super Bowl 60. They are bringing the Lombardi back to the northwest. If it's happening on a football field, NFL Daily will cover it. Listen to NFL Daily on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon.

People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, Richard Pryor. And we pull apart the story behind the image. And we do this by digging through the BBC's vast archive. We're talking iconic moments in broadcast history. I'm not just a boxer. I'm educating. I can talk all week on millions of subjects. And forgotten interviews that change how we see these giants of our culture. Well, if changing the system from the ground up is revolutionary, then I'm revolutionary.

We're here for the messy, the brilliant. the human version of our heroes. I mean, when I go on stage, I like to dress as slutty as possible because it makes me dance a bit for some reason. I'm Emmanuel Jochi. I'm Kai Wright. And this is Big Lives. Listen to Big Lives on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts. Part of Amazon's fear around the Delivery Protection Act could also be due to the Mumdani administration's aggressive approach to enforcing worker protections and cracking down. down on big corporations exploiting delivery workers. Last month, Mayor Mamdani and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection announced a record $131.5 million settlement from DoorDash for

underpaying or even not paying their delivery workers. This is the largest labor enforcement action in New York City history, the largest labor settlement in municipal history. Over $115 million will go directly to more than 260,000 workers who were denied the pay that they earned, with DoorDash paying an additional $16 million in civil penalties, including funding to build a city and worker-run wage theft monitoring tool to keep DoorDash accountable. Here's the deputy mayor for economic justice, Julie Sue. DoorDash built a system that was quietly leaving out categories of trips and on-call time so the real amount of work by deliveryistas wasn't counted. Worse, that practice was hidden from workers,

making it almost impossible for them to know when they were underpaid. Some were paid late, Some weren't paid at all. This historic settlement is not just the result of increased investment in the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection by Mayor Mamdani, but also the tireless work of deliveristas, advocates, and organizers at the Workers' Justice Project. Affected DoorDash workers don't even have to file a claim. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has already identified all individuals. individuals owed money through their analysis of DoorDash's records and will reach out to workers later this month.

The department poured through terabytes of pay data to discover the huge magnitude of wage theft and systemic violations of New York City's delivery worker laws like the minimum pay rate. Now, two months ago, Tony Shue, the CEO of DoorDash, gave business owners a piece of advice. A CEO, he said, has to take the greedy algorithm and keep going all the way to see if there is more. In computer science, a greedy algorithm is one that makes the most optimized best short-term outcome choice at every step and never weighs the consequences. New York City and the tens of thousands of delivery workers who call our city home have reckoned with greed as a business model for far too long. For years, DoorDash failed to count every hour worked by delivery workers. This was not a rounding error or an accidental mistake. In 2023, when the city began enforcing a minimum pay rate for delivery workers,

DoorDash left time out of the count, time on canceled trips, and trips that crossed city limits. Investigators at our incredible Department of Consumer and Worker Protection went through terabytes of DoorDash's own data. After analyzing 152 million payments and 110 million hours of work, they arrived at a staggering conclusion. DoorDash had underpaid more than 260,000 delivery workers across New York City between April of 2022 and June of 26. According to the mayor's office, these workers will receive compensation calculated at approximately 200% of the amount that they were underpaid. Just last year, Doordash spent over a million dollars to prevent Mamdani from being elected, and now they must pay over 131 million. After Mayor Mamdani announced this settlement,

DoorDash took to social media to post a Notes app style apology reading, quote, we messed up. Our mistakes meant some NYC dashers were underpaid or paid late. That's unacceptable. And we're deeply sorry to the dashers we let down.

We've reached a settlement with the city of New York and we will make this right by paying every impacted Dasher the amounts they are owed. Unquote. Bitch, you stole over a hundred million dollars. That's a big oopsie. You didn't just let some dashers down. Per the mayor's office, quote,

this enforcement action builds on the Mamdani administration's broader effort to vigorously enforce the laws that protect delivery workers. The administration has already seen. secured more than 104 million in additional tips by cracking down on deceptive app design, and 725 million in increased wages for delivery workers since January, unquote. Mayor Mamdani ended the DoorDash announcement with a warning to other companies. And to any corporation that has built a business model on greedy algorithms and worker exploitation, consider this your notice.

If you keep trying to rip off New Yorkers, we will be happy to make history again. This is New York City, where hard work pays and greed will cost you. Thank you. About a month earlier on August 10th, May Ram Dani publicly backed the Delivery Protection Act and made a slick little video explaining what it is and why it's important for workers. to quote the mayor, quote, corporations like Amazon build billion dollar business models by insulating themselves from accountability through a system of exploitative subcontracting. As last mile delivery centers have exploded across New York, so too have traffic accidents

and worker injuries. The Delivery Protection Act is a common sense regulation that protects delivery workers, safeguards the communities where these facilities operate, and ensures that the corporations benefiting from workers' labor are responsible for the consequences of their business practices. New Yorkers should not be forced to subsidize corporate profits with less safe streets and more precarious jobs. The people that make these companies run deserve dignity, stability, and a safe workplace. It's time to end the subcontracting model that puts profits over people and build an economy that works for working New Yorkers. One of the best things we've had is we've had the support of the mayor.

Mayors are on Mondani and as deputy mayor, Julie Sue, come out really strongly in favor of the bill. There was like amazing press about that. So a lot of earned media around that. And a lot of our coalition members have also been hard at work, doing a lot of additional research, putting out really amazing press. In fact, just this week there was a wonderful story that featured the work of our friends in align. They did some really great research locating like all of the different traffic violations and parking violations Amazon has incurred because this bill isn't just a worker safety bill. This is a street safety bill and a climate bill. You know, our SIO Tiffany loves to talk about

how this last mile delivery sector is kind of like the Wild West. It's just exploded. And there really isn't a whole lot of rules of the road, of guidelines of regulation. And so they're just kind of running roughshod. And this really uses the power of the city, municipal legislation, to really regulate in a very sensible way, how these businesses should operate for the safety of workers, for the safety of consumers, and for everybody out on the streets of the city. As Matt from DSA mentioned earlier this episode,

after sending over 100 letters and knocking on thousands of doors, City Council member Rita Joseph in Flatbush almost immediately flipped and signed on to the bill this past August. But she's not the only one who's changed tune since DSA and the Teamsters up to their organizing this summer. We've had a big influence since we started a canvassing operation. I think in New York politics at this point, people know what it means when a bunch of people at DSA signs

start showing up in your neighborhood and knocking doors. People get very freaked out very quickly, which is good for us. So like I said, when we knocked Rita Joseph's door, she decided to get onto the bill right away. We also then got another council member named Sean O'Grayu to flip onto the bill as well, I think the same day. It was also right around when Mayor Mondani put his video out, so I'm sure for a lot of council members was really time to get on board time between us and the mayor. But then, Since then, we also were able to move a council member, Camilla Hanks, onto the bill as well. And she's really important to get on because her district is actually on Staten Island

and overlaps a lot of the Amazon organizing going on there that goes all the way back to, like, the Amazon Labor Union and the ALU. So it was really important for us to make sure that Staten Island is part of our plans, because those workers have been in the Amazon fight longer than anyone. And we're really proud of that one as well. So in total, in the last two and a half months, we flipped three people onto the bill. and we've also really developed a kind of citywide feeling that this bill is very, very important for his rights, and we really see more and more and more people talking about it now.

And I think that that has a lot to do with the publicity we've given it over the last couple months. So, you know, again, we already have a super majority. This is now it's really just all about getting Speaker Menon to actually put it for a vote. And if she does, we're extremely confident that it will pass. With a super majority in city council, now the pressure is on Speaker Julie Menon to call the bill to a vote. vote. Last Saturday, DSA canvassed Speaker Menon's district in the Upper East Side, and they plan to do another neighborhood canvas sometime next week. We want to get the bill passed on November 12th, so that's the new deadline, so we're going to be doing more canvassing, hopefully having more rallies.

DSA also has an online tool to help you send your city council member or Speaker Menon a letter expressing your support for the Delivery Protection Act. You can send a letter to your council member or to Speaker Menon. I think sending it to Speaker Menon at this point is the most important thing. So anyone who's a New York listener should definitely do that. In terms of rallies, DSA is planning a big last hurrah in support of this bill outside City Hall on October 22nd, which will be the last city council meeting before November, when organizers intend for the bill to be brought to a vote.

So we're going to have a big showing right outside City Hall on October 22nd to really demonstrate our power and really put out the call out there for this bill to be agendized and brought to the floor for a vote on November's Hall. Yeah, so if anyone wants to come out and canvas or come to a rally, this is really a final push, and we're feeling pretty confident, but we need to end strong. The Delivery Protection Act could be the wedge that cracks open Amazon by strengthening workers' ability to organize through closing the illegal union-busting loophole and ensuring that corporations like Amazon or FedEx can no longer get away with using third-party shell companies

to shield themselves from liability. Samuel Levin, the commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, put it plainly, quote, the Delivery Protection Act affirms a simple idea. Those who profit from our labor and public spaces must also be responsible for the people and communities that make it possible, unquote.

Chipping away at Amazon's vast network of delivery subcontractors could also have national ramifications. If the Delivery Protection Act passes in New York City, it could provide a template for other cities across the country to start to regulate Amazon, to protect last-mile delivery workers,

and shut down the hyper-exploitative subcontractor model dominating huge sectors of our economy. And if we succeed here in New York, surely it can be done elsewhere. In New York City, DSA, we just really feel strongly that taking on Amazon is a really important existential battle for socialists and the labor movement. So we see this as really the first step in using,

the power we have in canvassing and the electoral arena, but also our ability to mass mobilize people to figure out a way to rein Amazon in and really help the labor movement take it on because it's more and more infiltrating every sector of the economy. They're going into entertainment. They are also going into groceries. They're going into web technologies and AI. They're really everywhere. Set to be the first company make a trillion dollars in profit. And if we're going to have a socialist future in New York and in America, really anywhere, we need to be Amazon and get it organized in the same way that they had to organize steel or the auto industry in the 30s. The fight now really does have to go through Amazon if we're going to see the socialist future

we're all fighting for. Yeah. And I would just add, you know, for me especially, and I think for a lot of DSA members, what makes the DSA difference isn't just, you know, that we are taking on the corporation and the way that the legislation really empowers workers. It's how we campaign. It's literally the way in which we fight. We are doing it, as Matt said, using all of the same tools that helped us win the mayoralty and helped us win big in recent primaries. It's just literally the basics of organizing. We are just talking to people. And low, low, behold, as Matt said, none of them like Amazon. They wanted to be regulated. You know, that is the DSA difference. We organize people. We have member-led and worker-led campaigns. That is transformative.

To keep up with the Delivery Protection Act, you can follow NYCDSA on Instagram or NYC-DSA Labor. As mentioned, there will be a canvas in Julie Menon's district sometime next week and a, hopefully, Final rally on October 22nd. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.

The miles change how you move, but more importantly, they change how you show up for your life. I'm Emily Abadi. On The Hurtle with Emily Abadi podcast, I sit down with elite athletes, record holders, coaches, and everyday runners to unpack the mindset behind pushing through when things get tough. Because the discipline, grace, and grit you build out there on the pavement, that's what helps you show up as your best self everywhere else. I'd just love to say, I never know who's watching. So you want to make sure you, you through and through, and you just stay true to who you are. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Do you love golf?

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You can listen to it now on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Did you think you were the only one? Like no matter what you did, it was never good enough for your mother. I'm Jennifer Arnese, and this is the Black Mother Woon podcast, where we unpack and heal from the very first relationship that shaped us. We rush to accommodate other people when we have. been hurt and our hurt has not been healed. Listen to the Black Mother Wound podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcast.

I'm Mimi Brown and every day on Front Page Podcast, I help you make sense of the stories shaping our world. Each day, I break down the biggest headlines. Canada's trade fight with the U.S. just escalated again and Americans could fill it in their wallets. And when a story deserves a deeper conversation, I'll sit down with experts, newsmakers, and thought leaders to help you better understand the issue behind the headlines. Listen to Front Page from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. I've been hearing for decades that the markets can solve climate change. Today, we have more incentives for market solutions than ever, and emissions are rising. On this season of drilled, Carbon Cowboys, the story of three market solutions colliding in one multinational boondoggle. You got to give Bruce of the guys credit. They're Republican. They don't give a shit of money. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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