Teamsters Ask New York to Probe Amazon Over Delivery-Contractor Layoffs, Say Thousands Lost Jobs

A Teamsters-led coalition on Tuesday released a report and filed a complaint with New York labor officials alleging that Amazon’s delivery-contractor network repeatedly failed to give workers the advance layoff notices required by state law, contributing to more than 3,500 job losses since 2018 and potentially leaving drivers owed up to $11 million in back pay.

The complaint, filed Aug. 18 with the New York State Department of Labor’s WARN Unit by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the National Employment Law Project, the Action Lab and ALIGN, focuses on Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner, or DSP, network in New York. DSPs are third-party companies that deliver Amazon packages. The groups are asking the state to investigate Amazon.com Services LLC and whether Amazon can be held responsible for alleged notice failures tied to those contractors.

According to the report, 35 DSPs have closed in New York since 2018, eliminating more than 3,500 jobs. The complaint and report argue that Amazon’s contractor model has produced repeated layoffs and site closures without the notice required under New York’s WARN Act, a state law that requires covered private employers with 50 or more full-time workers to provide 90 days’ written notice before certain mass layoffs, relocations or closings. Employers that fail to comply can be liable for back pay and benefits.

The filing highlights a more recent subset of cases from 2023 through 2025. It alleges that at least 13 DSPs gave workers less than the required 90 days’ notice, affecting 1,394 New York workers. In some cases, the complaint says, notices were as short as 24 days; in others, notice was sent only after a closure had already happened.

The complaint is addressed to the state Labor Department’s WARN Unit and signed by Randy Korgan, director of the Teamsters Amazon Division, and Thomas Gesualdi, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16. It urges Labor Commissioner action to examine Amazon’s relationship to the DSP network and whether the company should face liability for the alleged notice deficiencies.

The $11 million figure is an estimate from the Teamsters-backed report and complaint, not a finding by the state. The coalition said its figures are based on matching Amazon DSPs to public WARN filings because New York’s public WARN database does not identify which employers are Amazon contractors. The groups said their totals should be viewed as a floor for that reason. By the report’s county table, the statewide total comes to 3,531 job losses.

As of Tuesday, the research behind the report had found no public Amazon statement responding specifically to the report and complaint.

The coalition is also using the report to press for New York City’s proposed Delivery Protection Act, known as Int. 518-2026, which would require licensing for last-mile delivery facilities and, as proposed, would push companies toward directly employing core delivery workers. The bill was laid over in committee on April 9.

In a Teamsters news release accompanying the filing, Maria Degante, identified as an Amazon driver, said: “I worked for two DSPs that Amazon closed without enough notice or severance, leaving me and my family stranded.”

For now, the immediate development is the formal escalation to state regulators: labor groups have asked New York to investigate whether Amazon bears responsibility under the WARN law for closures and layoffs carried out through its delivery-contractor network.