In their crusade to remake New York’s economy, progressives on the city council are once again taking aim at Amazon. Under proposed legislation, the firm and others engaging in “last-mile” deliveries from warehouses to customers would no longer be able to use third-party contractors. The bill also adds a licensing requirement for last-mile deliveries in the city.
Though framed as a pro-labor move, the law would significantly disrupt a business model on which millions of working New Yorkers rely. It would do so in the name of “safety,” though worker-injury rates at Amazon’s delivery service partners (DSPs), which the firm contracts with to conduct last-mile deliveries, is below the national average for the industry. Indeed, visit one of the Amazon facilities and it becomes obvious that the bill’s focus on “safety” is mostly a way to drive an important employer out of New York.
While progressives like to compare the conditions at Amazon’s facilities to sweatshops, the reality is quite different. Take Amazon’s “DAB5” last-mile facility in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the fourth such site to open in the borough. The millions of dollars poured into it and the roughly 20 similar facilities across the city were a response to the company’s growing business serving New Yorkers, creating hundreds of jobs in the process…