Lawsuit Exposes Amazon’s Free Speech Violations, Use of Contractors to Facilitate Abuses Like Wage Theft
For more than a year, Esly Paredes shared the mundane things of his life as an Amazon delivery driver to his young followers on TikTok – eating his favorite lunch spots and fashion scores among hundreds of videos of him pulling packages and killing time between shifts.
In one April 30 post — filmed, like many of his videos, in full uniform inside a parked Amazon truck — a man he describes as his boss smiles and raises the camera.
Paredes said that his managers have never raised any issues regarding his presence on social media. That is, he even posted a series of videos in support of a City Council bill that was fiercely opposed by Amazon and a combination of groups representing the company’s subcontractors.
Paredes was fired on May 27 for violating his employer’s policies and social media policies, according to a copy of his termination letter obtained by The City Reporter, a case he says violates his right to free speech. He filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board with the help of the Teamsters, which has been organizing Amazon delivery drivers in New York and California for the past few years.
“They thought I was going to be quiet, and they thought that by firing me, they were going to silence me,” Paredes, a 31-year-old single mother from Jamaica, Queens, said in Spanish. “But I raise my voice, I speak in my videos even more to explain to my fellow drivers why these protections are needed.”
Amazon spokeswoman Leigh Anne Gullett said in a statement that the company was not involved in “any personnel decision involving Ms. Paredes.”
“Delivery Service Partners are independent businesses that hire and manage their own employees,” said Gullett.
Vincent Satriano, owner of Paredes’ company, Satriano Logistics/STAA, said in an email: “This decision followed repeated violations of my company’s policies. There were no other factors involved.”
The bill supported by Paredes will have a direct impact on workers like him. Introduced by Council Member Tiffany Cabán of Queens, it seeks to force Amazon to directly hire delivery workers employed by a group of contractors. The bill was supported by 30 legislators and Mamdani officials, but still has to be voted on by the full City Council.
Amazon’s ‘Partners’
In New York, Amazon’s shipping fleet is subcontracted by more than 40 companies it refers to as “delivery service partners,” or DSPs — a program critics say protects Amazon from liability in the event of accidents, wage-theft claims, and collective bargaining. The online retail giant says those subcontractors are responsible for workers, even though they drive Amazon-branded cars, wear Amazon-branded vests, and rely on Amazon for roadside assistance.
For years, federal regulators have been building a landmark case over Amazon’s control over its contract drivers. The regional directors of the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles and Atlanta issued the first rulings in 2024 ruling that Amazon is a joint employer of its contracted drivers and can be held liable for anti-union work.
But those efforts faded in Trump’s second administration with the appointment of Amazon’s former outside attorney as head of the NLRB.
An exposé in Bloomberg Businessweek this month revealed the lengths Amazon goes to to control drivers it insists are not its employees: forcing its contractors to send drivers into dangerous weather conditions against their judgment, dictating which vendors they can do business with and even setting delivery routes for drivers.
In addition to requiring subcontracted drivers to wear company uniforms, Amazon also tells them to have no “unpleasant breath or body odor, modest perfume/cologne, and clean teeth, face/ears, nails and hair,” according to documents obtained by Bloomberg.
Amazon and business groups say Cabán’s bill will cripple small businesses and lead to thousands of lost jobs. Amazon representatives say that if passed, the retail giant may have to consider moving its operations out of New York entirely.
As Amazon and its subcontractors have stepped up efforts to end Cabán’s bill, several drivers employed by Amazon’s delivery partners in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens who spoke to The City Reporter said their bosses have offered to pay for workers to attend an April meeting at City Hall against the bill and sit in on meetings with lawmakers as company representatives against the changes.
Another employee who spoke to The City Reporter, who asked that his name be withheld for fear of retaliation, said he received a full day’s pay and free car service from City Hall and returned on time. Employees at other DSPs say their colleagues get similar things from their bosses.
Cabán said he met Paredes before he was shot and saw one of his videos where he was hauling heavy packages alone at work without backup. He said his office has been in contact with him since the shooting and “fully supports” his lawsuit against Amazon.
Free Speech Claim for a Fired Driver
Paredes, who was a driver for nearly three years before he was fired, began posting videos in favor of the Delivery Protection Act after an April meeting at City Hall. He didn’t attend that meeting, but he heard about the bill from some of his colleagues who attended – on both sides of the issue – and ended up supporting the bill. He said he wants his audience of other delivery drivers to have all the facts about the City Council and the efforts of the Teamsters.
Her boss told her to stop, which she interpreted as an order to stop recording TikToks at work. But he continued to write about the bill, and his content regularly, from home, often wearing his Amazon uniform.
“I have the right to speak freely in this country,” Paredes told The City Reporter. “They will not be able to tell me what to do in my home.”
He then received two final written warnings from Satriano Logistics’ human resources department, dated May 19, ordering him to remove all of his videos within 24 hours for violating the company’s social media and solicitation policies.
“It has come to our attention that you have posted content that disparages the company and exposes sensitive operational information,” read the notice, which also ordered him to stop all recordings.
In a formal complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board against Paredes’ firing, the Teamsters wrote that his social media account is a “protected activism.[y]” and that the company’s demands that he remove all of his content interfered with those rights.” The Teamsters filed a complaint against Amazon and Satriano Logistics/STAA on June 4.
Paredes insists that until he started speaking out about the Delivery Protection Act, none of his bosses had raised any issues about his social media content. In fact, he says he’s had conversations with at least one manager about using powerful video to promote a shipping company.
He posted another video after his shooting, calling out Amazon directly and criticizing his “wrong” shooting. Speaking about Amazon, he says in Spanish: “They are scared of this bill, because they fear that if we have full information about our rights, we will defend ourselves and push this bill that benefits us – but not Amazon and DSPs.”
She told The City Reporter that she is struggling to find a new job and has dipped into her savings to support herself and her young daughter. She has applied for food stamps, but is still waiting for the benefit to come through.
“I have nothing against my bosses – it’s all about Amazon,” he said. “They must stand up for us, respect our rights and be fair to me.”
