Publisher’s Column: Red Hook West TA President acts in a commercial

Red Hook TV watchers might have noticed a familiar face recently. The person above, identified only as “Miss Dawn,” was featured in a commercial for the group “The Five Borough Jobs Campaign,” speaking against passage of a NY City Council piece of legislation titled “Intro 518). This legislation, sponsored by a number of progressive politicians including Tiffany Caban, Lincoln Restler, Alex Aviles, Christopher Marte, Chi Osse, Julie Won, Chris Banks, Harvey Epstein, Jumaane Williams and Antonio Reynoso, would change a piece of law having to do with the licensing of last mile warehouses.

The bill would affect mostly Amazon, Fedex and UPS. The City Council report on this bill talks about the fact that while unionized warehouse workers receive benefits such as living wages and vacation pay, many of the delivery workers used by these companies are contracted from third party providers, called Delivery Service Provders (DSP), meaning that your Amazon delivery person is usually not an Amazon employee.

However, according to the report: “Last-mile facility operators have varying levels of oversight over the contractors who perform deliveries on their behalf. Amazon has an especially close relationship with its DSPs, helping them start their businesses by offering negotiated rates on insurance and van leases. DSPs have reported that Amazon largely directs the management of their business and workforce including the selection of insurance and payroll vendors; the hiring, discipline and termination of drivers; and the assignment of routes. In addition to driving Amazon-branded and owned vehicles and wearing Amazon-branded apparel, employees for DSPs must consent to be monitored by Artificial Intelligence-enabled surveillance cameras owned by Amazon as a condition of work.”

The report goes on to describe safety issues caused by the difficult working conditions. “A number of DSP workers have reported that they are under immense pressure to meet delivery quotas established and monitored by Amazon, and that they skip lunch, limit their water intake or urinate in bottles to keep up with the pace.”

The legislation’s goal is to make Amazon and the other companies responsible for the working conditions and safety of their delivery workers by licensing the whole operation. The report concludes: “The Committee hopes to learn more about the impacts of last-mile delivery facilities on street safety and worker health and safety, how subcontracting of work impacts those safety concerns, and how licensing of last-mile facilities and direct employment of workers providing core services might mitigate those impacts.”

The Five Borough Jobs Campaign, who hired “Miss Dawn,” better known in Red Hook as the Red Hook West TA President, is a non-profit lobbying organization headed by Randy Peers, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, representing business and real estate groups throughout the city, including REBNY.

The text of the commercial starts with Miss Dawn at the Red Hook Houses. The text goes like this:

“This is our community, and we’re here to stay. Getting groceries, getting medication. Delivery isn’t a luxury for us, it’s how we get by. So, the last thing I need is politicians making delivery more expensive or harder to get. The Delivery Protection Act is not protecting me or my neighbors, it’s making our lives harder. Tell the city council, stop raising costs on people who are just trying to get by.”

Labor versus capital
A few things about this. Pro-business groups are always looking to make greater profits on the back of workers. The Democratic City Council is generally on the side of workers and public safety – which this bill attempts to do.

Hiring outside contractors enriches the contractors and the distribution companies (Amazon, etc). This law attempts to mitigate that.

I’m guessing that there are more public housing tenants who work in delivery than own these companies. Is it right for the face of Red Hook West to speak for this business lobbying group?

A few other things: As readers of this paper know, Karen Blondel served, and continues with the Brooklyn Marine Task Force (BMT). AKRF Consulting was used by the EDC to plan the BMT. AKRF consulting also was hired by Five Boroughs to prepare a study of Intro 518. Randy Peers, head of Five Boroughs, also served on the BMT Task Force. These are not coincidences – they are networks.

So the question I have is whether it is appropriate for the representative of Red Hook Public Housing tenants to be the face of a lobbying organizations advocating for the business interests of companies like Amazon.