Last week, about 100 package delivery drivers at Amazon’s DIL7 Delivery Station in Skokie, Illinois went on strike for wage increases, a 40-hour work week, and to protest union busting efforts by the company. The drivers had recently joined Teamsters Local 705 and placed demands on Amazon to improve their working conditions.

Workers at the facility are paid around $20 per hour. The company intentionally schedules them for less than 40 hours per week to avoid having to provide the benefits of full time workers. Drivers at the facility DIL7 facility located just north of Chicago are among the poorest section of workers in the community.  

On June 20, workers staged a march in the warehouse and brought their demands for wages, hours, and union recognition to the DIL7 management. In a video of the march one worker stated to management that the delivery drivers are demanding, “$30 per hour… guaranteed 40 hours [per week]… better benefits… and we demand dignity.” He added, “We are not going to step down until we win this fight.”

Just days later, Amazon announced it was ending its contract with Four Star Express Delivery, the contractor serving as the official employer of the drivers. Throughout the country Amazon enlists thousands of Delivery Service Providers (DSPs) as contractors to divide its workforce and avoid labor laws while still controlling every aspect of workers’ conditions.

In addition to low pay and demanding hours, Amazon delivery workers are often subject to intense surveillance. Trucks have their locations tracked at all times and drivers are monitored with cameras inside the vehicles.