None of the drivers who zip around New York City in cargo vans and box trucks emblazoned with the ubiquitous Amazon logo are actually employed by the company.
Instead, they work for an assortment of third-party delivery companies that have contracts with the e-commerce behemoth.
Now, in a move that could deal a blow to Amazon, the largest company in America, Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to ban the use of such contractors and require the company to hire the drivers directly. The proposed ban, included in a broader licensing bill, would be the first outright prohibition in the country on the use of so-called delivery service partners.
Standing between Mr. Mamdani and the corporate titan is Julie Menin, the speaker of the City Council, who finds herself in a tough spot.
Ms. Menin, a centrist Democrat who is keen on building her public profile, has staked out a business-friendly position in a city run by a democratic socialist mayor who is skeptical of corporate excess. She says she is concerned that the bill might cost the city jobs and lead Amazon to jack up prices.
In recent days, as her team reviews and amends the bill, she has indicated that she is considering paring it down to focus only on licensing the warehouses that work with the third-party delivery companies and regulating their operations, according to two people familiar with her thinking. That version of the bill would not require Amazon to directly hire the drivers.
But Ms. Menin must contend with a groundswell of support for the legislation after an emotional Council hearing in April that featured testimony from drivers describing unsafe working conditions, including car crashes. She is still open to a ban, and has asked her staff to research its implications, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
“New York City regulates everything from nail salons to barbershops, yet major online retailers like Amazon have gone unregulated for far too long,” she said in a statement. “It’s time for Amazon to adhere to a licensing framework that ensures fair pay, strong worker protections and more responsible delivery practices that don’t leave vehicles idling on our streets for hours.”
She said the measure “can and must” protect workers without costing any jobs.
The bill already has more than enough sponsors to pass in the Council if Ms. Menin schedules a vote.
Supporters believe it would lead to safer conditions for drivers, higher pay and fewer barriers to unionizing.
“This is the most important labor and worker protection bill at the municipal level in the country right now, hands down, and it is against one of the most powerful companies in the world,” Tiffany Cabán, the legislation’s main sponsor and a democratic socialist, said in an interview.
Amazon says that if the bill is approved as is, it might sue the city. Opponents of the measure have engaged in a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort, running digital ads warning that it would “break Amazon’s same-day and two-day delivery” and raise “your costs even higher.”
Ty Barnes, the owner of NorthStar Logistics, a company that delivers Amazon packages in the Bronx, said he employs about 100 workers who deliver more than 100,000 packages each week. He said he often hires people who are struggling to find work, and that the bill would force his business to close.
“My business would be absolutely destroyed,” he said. “I don’t think the mayor and the Council members realize who I am and what exactly I do.”
The bill would bar companies like Amazon from contracting with third parties for warehousing or delivering packages, with a grace period that includes certain extensions, and would mandate that the companies directly employ anyone providing a “core delivery service.” If a contractor goes out of business as a result of the legislation and terminates its drivers, those workers would have to be rehired by Amazon.
Amazon’s global success relies heavily on third-party delivery firms. In New York City, it contracts with more than 40 partner companies that collectively employ more than 5,000 people, according to a company spokesman, Steve Kelly.
Asked if Amazon would comply with the bill’s rehiring requirement, Mr. Kelly said Amazon would consider “relocating operations and delivery facilities outside of New York City.”
Mr. Mamdani has seized on the issue — which offers him a chance to take on a conglomerate whose founder, Jeff Bezos, is one of the world’s richest people — as he tries to burnish his credentials as a pro-worker politician.
“When a driver wears an Amazon vest, drives an Amazon van, follows a route Amazon sets and Amazon insists that driver does not work for them, what is that if not exploitation?” he said at a rally with Ms. Cabán and supporters of the bill last month.
But as the mayor was promoting the legislation, his administration’s lawyers were expressing reservations to the City Council, Ms. Menin told reporters during a news conference last month.
Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the Law Department, and Cassio Mendoza, a spokesman for the mayor, would not provide any detail about those concerns. Two people familiar with talks between the teams of Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Menin said city lawyers were exploring whether the bill was pre-empted by federal law. Mr. Paolucci said he was confident that the final bill would pass legal muster.
The Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act bars states and municipalities from enforcing laws related to motor carriers. The New York bill, as written, would void contracts between carriers and contractors, in potential violation of a constitutional contract clause, and would potentially affect interstate commerce, Brendan McGuire, a lawyer at the firm WilmerHale, wrote in a memo that was provided to The New York Times.
He was retained by the Five Borough Jobs Campaign, a pro-business group funded by Amazon that has spent over $8 million lobbying against the legislation.
Amazon has also donated to the National Urban League, a civil rights group focused on economic inequality. Its president, Marc Morial, recently held a call with reporters to warn that the bill would shut down Black-owned small businesses at a moment when his organization is trying to address a racial wealth gap.
“If you put them out of business, are they due reparations?” Mr. Morial said, adding, “We’re up against interests that might have some good motivations, but they have not considered the consequences.”
Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for Amazon, said in a statement that the bill “would directly undermine” the company’s commitment to “creating good jobs” and working with small business owners, like those employing the third-party delivery workers.
If Amazon were to relocate its delivery operations, she said, “this would likely mean slower and more expensive delivery, deteriorating the experience for millions of customers in New York City.”
The bill has drawn support from across the political spectrum: The president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Sean O’Brien, who has supported Republicans, and the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America are united behind it.
Many delivery workers say that their jobs are difficult, and they should be able to afford life in the city, especially when Amazon is so profitable.
Jerome Sloss, 33, a musician from Indiana, has been delivering Amazon packages in Queens for two years and is a member of the Teamsters union. He said that his working conditions were often unsafe — driving vans without proper equipment and having to double-park in perilous locations — and the wages were too low at $24.75 per hour.
“If I was back in Indiana, that would be pretty decent money,” he said. “For New York, it’s just enough to pay your rent and a few bills, and you’re living paycheck to paycheck.”
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