An Amazon delivery driver pushes a cart of groceries to load into a vehicle outside of a distribution facility on 2 February 2021 in Redondo Beach, California Korgan said the wages Amazon delivery drivers receive, starting at $15 an hour, are far below the average wages for drivers at companies like UPS, where Teamsters represent about 240,000 workers. Based on the union's current contract, UPS drivers start at $21 an hour and can make up to $40 an hour or more. In Iowa, the Des Moines Register reported the Teamsters are organizing drivers and warehouse workers at Amazon for higher pay and less stringent rates, utilizing strikes rather than focusing on union elections through the National Labor Relations Board. Drivers for Amazon contractors have complained of the surveillance and pressure they receive through cameras and a tracking app, Mentor. Derrick Flournoy worked as a driver for an Amazon Delivery Service Provider in Downers Grove, Illinois, for more than one year before he quit after experiencing retaliation from management for organizing an online chat for workers to discuss grievances on the job such as the lack of pay increases. "I started the chat group on a Friday morning, and about an hour after the chat group was put up the manager took it down, which we didn't even know that he had the power to do if he wasn't included in the chat, and then he also disabled my ability within the entire app to even communicate with anybody, unless it was directly with management," said Flournoy, who filed an unfair labor practice charge through the Amazon Delivery Drivers Coalition against Amazon after he was removed from his work shift immediately after the incident. "To me, it was obvious retaliation, and it was his way of showing that he had power and if we didn't basically form a model of who he wanted, that he could take our hours." Flournoy made $16 an hour, which remained unchanged from when he started in December 2019 to when he left in February 2021, even as a 40-hour full-time work week wasn't guaranteed. "Sixteen dollars an hour isn't enough for the amount of work that we have to do. We're a representation of the wealthiest company in the world and we're barely making enough money to live," Flournoy added. "I just think that it's crazy to me that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have gone back and forth every week about who is the wealthiest person in the world and I can't even pay my rent. I'm breaking my back to deliver packages every day and there's no compassion from upper management to understand or to listen to drivers' concerns." designer bags cyber monday