For more than a year, Eslie Paredes has regularly shared her life as an Amazon delivery driver to her small following on TikTok, showcasing her favorite lunch spots and fashion scores among hundreds of videos of her delivering packages and killing time between shifts.
In one post from April 30, like many of her videos, she is filmed in uniform inside a parked Amazon truck, with a man she calls her boss smiling and waving at the camera.
Paredes said her supervisors never raised any issues with her social media presence. That was until she posted a series of videos supporting a City Council bill that is fiercely opposed by a consortium of groups representing Amazon and its subcontractors.
Paredes was fired on May 27 for violating her employer’s solicitation and social media policies, a charge that violates her free speech rights, according to a copy of her termination letter obtained by City Reporter. She filed a formal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board with the help of the Teamsters, which has organized Amazon delivery drivers in New York and California in recent years.
“They thought I would be quiet, and they thought they could shut me up by firing me,” Paredes, 31, a single mother from Jamaica, Queens, said in Spanish. “But I’m speaking out, and I’m speaking out even more on video to explain to other drivers why we need these protections.”
An Amazon employee makes a delivery in the Financial District on June 9, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/The City Reporter
Amazon spokeswoman Lee Ann Garrett said in a statement that the company was not involved in “any personnel decisions regarding Mr. Paredes.”
“Delivery service partners are independent businesses that employ and manage their own employees,” Garrett said.
“This decision follows repeated violations of my company’s policies. No other factors were involved,” Vincent Satriano, owner of Paredes’ former employer, Satriano Logistics/STAA, said in an email.
The bill Paredes supported would directly impact workers like her. The bill, introduced by Queens City Councilwoman Tiffany Caban, would force Amazon to directly hire delivery workers who are currently employed by a patchwork of contractors. The bill is supported by 30 councilors and Mamdani’s government, but has not yet been voted on by the full city council.
Amazon’s “Partner”
In New York, Amazon’s delivery vehicles are subcontracted by more than 40 companies, which the company calls “Delivery Service Partners” (DSPs). Critics argue that the arrangement shields Amazon from liability in the event of accidents, wage theft complaints and collective bargaining. The online retail giant claims these subcontractors are responsible for their employees, even though they drive Amazon-branded cars, wear Amazon-branded vests and rely on Amazon for on-the-street support.
For years, federal regulators have been pursuing landmark lawsuits over Amazon’s control over its contracted drivers. In 2024, the regional directors of the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles and Atlanta issued a preliminary ruling that Amazon was a co-employer of subcontracted drivers and could be held liable for anti-union activities.
However, these efforts were overshadowed by the appointment of Amazon’s former foreign lawyer as head of the NLRB during the second Trump administration.
A Bloomberg Businessweek exposé this month revealed the lengths to which Amazon goes to manage drivers it claims are not its employees. They forced contractors to send drivers in dangerous weather conditions against their own judgment, dictated which vendors could work with them, and even set drivers’ delivery routes.
In addition to requiring its subcontracted drivers to wear company uniforms, the company instructs its subcontracted drivers to avoid “unpleasant breath or body odor, mild perfume or cologne, clean teeth, faces, ears, nails, and hair,” according to documents obtained by Bloomberg.
Amazon and business groups say Caban’s bill would hit small businesses hard and lead to thousands of job losses. Amazon representatives say if passed, the retail giant may have to consider pulling out of New York altogether.
As Amazon and its subcontractors escalate their efforts to crush Caban’s bill, several drivers employed by Amazon delivery service partners in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens told City Reporter that their bosses offered to pay employees to attend a town hall rally in April opposing the bill, and for company representatives to sit in on meetings with lawmakers opposed to the reform.
One employee, who spoke to City Reporter on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said he received a full day’s pay and free car service to and from City Hall. Other DSP employees say their colleagues received the same offer from their own bosses.
Ms. Caban said she met Ms. Paredes before she was fired and saw videos of her carrying heavy loads alone without any backup at work. She said her office has remained in contact with her since her termination and “fully supports” her accusations against Amazon.
Fired driver’s free speech claim
Paredes, who worked as a driver for about three years before being fired, first started posting videos in support of the Delivery Protection Act after a rally at City Hall in April. Although she did not attend the rally herself, she heard about the bill through other colleagues who attended from both sides of the issue and ultimately supported it. She said she wanted the audience of fellow delivery workers to know all the facts about the City Council and Teamsters’ efforts.
She said her boss told her to stop, but she interpreted that as an instruction to stop filming TikToks at work. But she continued to post about the bill and her regular content from home, often in her Amazon uniform.
“I have a right to freedom of speech in this country,” Paredes told City Reporter. “They don’t tell me what to do in my house.”
She then received two final written warnings from Satriano Logistics’ human resources department, dated May 19, and was instructed to remove all videos within 24 hours for violating the company’s social media and solicitation policies.
“We have become aware that you have posted content that defames the company and exposes sensitive business information,” the notice said, and instructed her to stop all recordings.
In a formal complaint filed with the federal National Labor Relations Board challenging Paredes’ termination, the Teamsters said social media was a “protected collective activity.”[y]”And the company’s request to remove all of her content interfered with those rights. The Teamsters filed a complaint against Amazon and Satriano Logistics/STAA on June 4.”
Paredes claims that none of her supervisors raised issues with her social media content until she started speaking favorably about the Protected Delivery Act. In fact, she claims to have had casual conversations with at least one boss about potentially collaborating on a video promoting the shipping company.
She posted another video after her firing, directly criticizing Amazon and accusing her of her “unfair” termination. About Amazon, she said in Spanish: “They’re afraid of this bill, because if we were fully aware of our rights, we would be pushing this bill that protects us and benefits us. But Amazon and DSPs are not.”
She told City Reporter that she was struggling to find a new job and dipping into her savings to support herself and her young daughter. She applied for food stamps but is still waiting for her benefits to begin.
“I have nothing against my boss. This is all on Amazon,” she said. “They need to be responsible to us, respect our rights and be fair to us.”
