It's time Amazon played by the same rules as everyone else [video]

pandanube

This guy cant stop winning, can we clone him and get one for each state?

RGS1811

Democracy depends on public education about policy needs, not just electoral fundraising and stupid campaign ads. This video is a brilliant piece of political rhetoric, because it says “here’s an issue you should care about”, gets a little technical in ways normal people can understand, and then says “hey we want to do something to fix this, please join us in this effort”. It’s upbeat, it’s rational. It’s so good.

slicktux

Honest question; it’s not Amazon that requires them to wear an Amazon vest but rather their contractor. Amazon may set the route but they don’t pay them to run the route. This should be interesting from a legal perspective.

jtbayly

But… what does it do?! I’m all about holding Amazon to the same standards, but what precisely does this accomplish? The subcontracting delivery companies already have to follow the same laws as every other company, don’t they?

EugeneG

Honest question: what are the actual concrete issues where Amazon is shirking responsibility they would have otherwise had? Was there a specific court case where Amazon didn't pay what it would have otherwise? A workplace injury that would have been covered but otherwise wasn't? If these exist, are they systemic - i.e., does it happen more often here than it does with UPS or FedEx delivery workers? There are insinuations here, and a good video, but it would be good to have actual examples and then an actual demonstration of a pattern of harm, before we introduce new rules that are likely going to make deliveries more expensive. I understand that a YouTube video isn't a policy document... and I don't expect it to have all of these things. But as a citizen, I do expect - that somewhere - there should be an actual policy document that outlines the facts.

novia

Contractors get paid less and don't get the same benefits as a full Amazon employee. It makes sense for NYC to push for them to be recognized as employees. It also makes sense for Amazon to push hard into drone delivery for NYC as a response, which I also support.

throw7

So the subcontractor is "avoiding regulations" (which are what btw?) by being a "subcontractor" and NYC can do nothing about the "subcontractors" but get rid of "subcontractors"?

trolleski

Play by the rules? Are you mad, you can loose that way!

__alexs

This video really deserves a better soundtrack.

podgietaru

I'm surprised to see so much of the rhetoric here being about what the concrete difference is... It is relatively easy to look that up, no? As far as I can see from a literal 5 second google search: - Liability for Injury at work is no longer on Amazon - Liability for injuries caused by Amazon workers get shifted to the Worker, rather than Amazon (despite the fact that some of the conditions leading to that may come from Amazon themselves) - It is harder to negotiate, as Amazon's official position is that "They do not work for us" - It is easier to stop employment of sub-contractors. The video already mentions this, but the idea of sub-contracting is that you are responsible for your own hours, routes, etc. This is clearly not the case for these workers.

FatherOfCurses

Amazing the number of people on HN who will simp for Jeff Bezos.

StilesCrisis

Man, Amazon is astroturfing the hell out of the comments here. They're scared of this one.

ptaffs

We might expect the politicians to legislate against this, please at the same time, if you can, spend your money with better companies.

1vuio0pswjnm7

Perhaps of interest 1785864306 | NJ files antitrust lawsuit against Amazon over delivery contractor control | https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/04/nj-amazon-antitrust-lawsuit-... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49172003