RED HOOK – The Amazon facility at 270 Richards St. is a sprawling warehouse along the waterfront. Young men trickle into the building wearing blue vests with the recognizable check mark logo. They chat at the front steps and get ready for a long day of delivering packages across the borough.
Juan Martinez, owner of COPR Industries, and one of many Amazon subcontractors, runs a tight ship. He oversees 140 employees and manages all forms of Amazon delivery systems, from e-bikes and cargo vans to walkers and box trucks, and estimates that his team delivers between 10,000 and 18,000 packages each day.
Martinez started his logistics company a year and a half ago, partnering with Amazon. As a small business owner, he provides his staff with access to health care, dental and vision benefits, paid time off, 401(k) with a match component and tuition reimbursement.
The Delivery Protection Act, or Intro 518, threatens to upend all of that.
Sponsored by New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, the Delivery Protection Act would establish a licensing system for certain last-mile warehouses, those like the one in Red Hook which sort and dispatch packages for delivery, to be licensed by the city and to also employ their delivery workers directly.
While the bill is intended to hold large corporations accountable for working conditions, it would fundamentally change the small businesses that currently make up the last-mile delivery network. By requiring delivery workers to be directly employed by the facility operators, like Amazon, the legislation would largely eliminate the subcontracting model used by Delivery Service Partners, or DSPs, and push the network outside the city to New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester County.
Last month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his backing of the act, creating pressure for the bill to pass.
There are over 100 DSPs across the city and an estimated 5,000 Brooklynites who are employed in the industry, according to New York Delivers, a coalition of delivery companies, businesses and workers. According to a spokesperson from the coalition, 10,000 people in the city could lose their jobs, as there is no guarantee that Amazon would hire them.
"Hiring DSPs in New Jersey or Westchester or places outside the city is taking money out of the city's economy, increasing traffic, congestion and emissions on the roads," they said. "So if the conversation is really about safety, the DSPs are open to that. But if it's about taking down Amazon, it's not really taking them down. It's just hurting local New York City employees.”
Matthew Galloway, a general manager with COPR started with Martinez when the staff was all of 10. Seeing the company grow to over 140 employees and counting has inspired him to consider starting a logistics company of his own, something he never could have imagined growing up in the projects in Red Hook.
However, if the act gets passed, Galloway would be one of the thousands of New Yorkers at risk of losing his job.
Before becoming a general manager, Gallowat began his career at DSPs when he was 21 years old, working across facilities in East New York and Staten Island. Starting out as a delivery associate, Galloway worked all sides of the business from being a walker, e-biker and van driver.
In his years of experience, he says that a common misconception is that all facilities are the same. Working conditions are dependent on management, and at COPR, Galloway says he feels supported.
“I know every one of my 140 employees by name. They’re not a number to me,” Martinez said, his eyes growing glossy. “They’re real people. It’s my team. I hire them. I want them to get better.”
