Fred German, an Amazon delivery driver at the DRI-1 warehouse in Providence, R.I., joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the Teamsters Local 251 organizing campaign underway among approximately 90 delivery drivers at the facility.
German came to the United States from the Dominican Republic as a child. He has worked at Amazon since 2021. He described his workplace, where stop quotas have climbed from 150 to 200 or more per route; vehicle maintenance is deferred until breakdowns force attention; health insurance costs approximately $300 per month with limited coverage; and the company that generates billions in revenue recently offered a wage increase of just $1. Since the unit demanded union recognition, Amazon and the delivery service partner have held anti-union meetings in which they compare Amazon drivers’ pay to that of part-time UPS warehouse workers, warn employees about sharing information with the union, and bring in managers and consultants to counter the campaign.
Several union supporters have been terminated. German said those terminations have hardened the remaining organizers rather than deterred them, and he is prepared to be the most visible target in the workplace if it draws fire away from his coworkers. Meanwhile, the unit is now preparing for the next phase of the fight.
Fred German came to the United States from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, when he was 1, brought by his mother to Providence, R.I., where his grandparents had already settled. He began working for Amazon in 2021, initially at a robotics station in Mansfield, Mass., that was eventually shut down. He moved to the DRI-1 facility in Providence, where he has been working for about four years.
DRI-1 is an Amazon delivery station with approximately 90 delivery drivers. Following a majority of the unit signing union authorization cards with Teamsters Local 251, the unit has demanded union recognition. Both the delivery service partner owner and Amazon have refused.
German described in detail the daily reality of being an Amazon delivery driver. When he started, a daily route included between 150 and 160 stops. Today, routes consistently run 180 to 200 stops. Group stops — addresses with multiple packages — mean the actual number of delivery locations is higher: approximately 250 on a solo route and 300 to 350 on routes with a helper. All routes are expected to be completed within the same time window.
The pressure is constant and built into the system, German said. Drivers receive text messages when they fall behind. German said he has seen fellow drivers run from vans to porches and back to stay ahead of that monitoring. There is no structural incentive to slow down, take care with deliveries or flag a concern — only consequences for falling behind.
On vehicle maintenance, German said it is the bare minimum at best. Oil changes get pushed as far as possible. Backup cameras go out and wait days or weeks to be repaired. Air conditioning units fail and are not promptly fixed. German described one step van he drove that had repeated misfiring issues and a transmission that would not shift correctly. The van was slow to accelerate and created what he described as frightening situations when merging onto main roads. That van was sent out the next day after he reported the problem.
When he raises safety concerns with supervisors, the response is consistent: “We got it, parts are on order.” The runaround, as he described it, is always something.
Since the unit demanded union recognition, the pressure at DRI-1 has intensified. German described an increased presence of managers and outside consultants. The delivery service partner owner has warned workers about sharing personal information with the union and described the Teamsters as an outside entity not to be trusted.
Amazon and its delivery partner have been holding what they call “union education” meetings. German said workers are shown comparisons of Amazon driver pay against part-time UPS warehouse worker pay. The comparison is designed to make the Amazon wage look competitive, he said. What the meeting does not mention, German noted, is that the part-time UPS warehouse worker has union benefits that Amazon drivers do not.
The meetings also characterize Teamsters dues as going primarily to leadership and lobbying and describe the union as out of touch with Amazon workers. German said his unit's response has been to start distributing informational flyers outside the station, with information at odds with the anti-union meetings. They want to give workers both sides and make clear the organizing committee is there to fight for them, he said.
Several union supporters at DRI-1 have been terminated. German admitted that losing people is always a blow, but the terminations have made him, and others, want to push harder.
One worker was terminated after five years with the company. He had been the driver of the month the prior month and rated a top performer two weeks before his termination. Another worker was surveilled during his break and was let go the next day. Two other workers whom German called some of the most committed union supporters he has encountered were also terminated.
The terminated workers have not walked away. They are handing out flyers outside the station. They are encouraging their former coworkers. They cannot be inside the building, but they are doing what they can.
The unit has demanded recognition, which has been refused. German said he expects something to happen in the coming weeks without specifying what. The distribution of informational flyers outside the station is the current public-facing effort.
German acknowledged that speaking on a public podcast is a risk. He said he reached a point where he is past that concern. If management focuses its attention on him, it takes some of that attention away from his coworkers. He is willing to be the most obvious union supporter in the building. Something, he said, has got to be done.
The Teamsters are organizing Amazon delivery workers at facilities across the country. More information is available at teamster.org.
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