For a company that has no union contracts, Amazon
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Teamsters organized a group of drivers in Palmdale, Ca. in April. An inhouse union organized warehouse workers in Staten Island in April 2022. Additionally, Amazon’s aviation division employs eight airlines, most of them with one or more unions. At Air Transport International (ATI), the primary airline flying for Amazon, the Air Line Pilots Association says low pay means pilots are leaving at rapid rate.
ALPA said Thursday that for the second consecutive month, ATI was unable to fill its captain vacancies. Year to date, of ATI’s 575 pilots, 155 have resigned, the union said: last year, 127 resigned. “With our ferocious attrition rate, we lost 50% of our pilots in the last year and a half,” said Mike Sterling, chairman of ATI’s pilot group.
The primary reason is low pay. At ATI, a 12-year Boeing 737-300 captain earns $281.87 hourly. At Delta, a 12-year Boeing 767-300 captain earns $349.50 an hour. First year ATI pilots earn about $68,000, whereas some regional airlines offer better pay, bonuses, and a path to fly at a major carrier. “I see no reason why you would come to ATI today,” said Sterling, a Boeing 767 captain with 27 years at ATI.
ATI pilots have negotiated since 2020. Their contract became amendable in March 2021; they entered mediation this year. “Our company doesn’t appear to be ready to finish anytime soon,” Sterling said. “It may be that the relationship they have with Amazon, where they are in the contract cycle, is hindering their ability to negotiate with pilots.”
In October, Amazon reached a deal for Hawaiian Airlines to operate ten A-330s starting this fall. In that case, Sterling said, “Amazon appears to have negotiated a contract that supports industry pay and benefits. We think Amazon is willing to pay market rate, I also suspect that they do not want to increase the rate of their ATI contract midterm. We appear to be mid-cycle and the escalators in the contract don’t support what is earned at other carriers.”
According to planespotters,net, Amazon’s operates a fleet of 94 aircraft, with 83 in service. The Boeing 767-300 is the number one aircraft, with 58 in the fleet and 54 in service. The planes fly with Prime Air livery. Of the active aircraft. 39 are flown by ATI, 25 by Atlas, 12 by Sun Country, with the rest operated by five other airlines, planespotters said.
Because of ATI’s pilot shortage, Sterling said, “We bounce back and forth between fly all day, rest, then fly all night. Day to night transitions are extremely fatiguing.” But he noted, “We like working for Amazon and we provide high reliability. Our issue is with our corporation. It’s time for them to recognize what a new contract looks like.”
ATSG Group operates three airlines including ATI. On the August 4th earnings call, Rich Corrado, CEO of ATSG, said, “We’re in mediation with both of our pilot unions at Onmi and ATI. We’ve always been able to come to agreement with our unions. Our goal is to get the right contract where we can attract and retain the pilots we have, and then also have the cost structure from which we’re able to compete for business.” Cortino said he doesn’t expect either contract “will be settled prior to 2024.”
ALPA is not the only union Amazon keeps at a distance. In April, the Teamsters organized 84 drivers and dispatchers at Battle Tested Strategies (BTS) a Palmdale, Ca.- based delivery firm that contracted with Amazon. Amazon declined to negotiate. On June 24, the drivers and dispatchers struck. Since then, they have picketed 10 Amazon warehouses throughout the country.
Amazon said it terminated BTS before its workers unionized, accusing it of six breaches of contract, including failing to pay for insurance, according to The Associated Press. BTS was among more than 3,000 delivery service partners recruited by Amazon to drop off packages to customers, the AP said in a story Wednesday.
“Despite the absolute control it wields over BTS and workers’ terms and conditions of employment, Amazon has refused to recognize and honor the union contract,” Teamsters said, in a prepared statement. “Instead, Amazon has engaged in dozens of unfair labor practices in violation of federal labor law, including terminating the entire unit of newly-organized workers.” Amazon did not respond to an email.
Meanwhile, at the Staten Island warehouse where an inhouse union successfully organized about 8,000 workers in April 2022, progress on a contract has stalled. Amazon won’t recognize the union, workers don’t agree on how to respond and no other Amazon warehouses have been organized.
John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, said Amazon “wants to be the last man standing” in resisting labor unions. He said Teamsters have the resources and infrastructure to battle Amazon, and suggested that union efforts in Staten Island could benefit from affiliation with the Teamsters.
TWU represents dispatchers at Hawaiian and Sun Country, which both fly for Amazon, another indication that the Amazon strategy of avoiding unions is not wholly successful when it uses airplanes. “There is no doubt that the airline industry is heavily unionized and that ALPA has an excellent record,” Samuelsen said. “The more that Amazon expands into the airline industry, the more it will see fight backs.”
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