Amazon has quietly poured $5,001,377 into a New York political operation dressed up as a small-business coalition, its largest disclosed New York state lobbying spend ever. The target: a New York City Council bill that would force Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) to directly employ the drivers who wear its uniform and drive its vans. On Aug. 10, 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed the bill on video, escalating a fight that had been running under the surface for six months into open political warfare.
The Delivery Protection Act
The bill, sponsored by Council Member Tiffany Caban (D-Queens), would require last-mile delivery facilities to be licensed by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and force operators like Amazon to directly employ delivery and warehouse workers rather than route them through third-party Delivery Service Partners. Amazon does not directly employ its 200,000+ U.S. drivers; DSPs do, while workers wear Amazon-branded uniforms and drive Amazon-branded vans. If passed, New York would be the first U.S. city to regulate last-mile delivery this way.
What $5 Million Bought
Amazon made five payments totaling $5,001,377 to the Five Borough Jobs Campaign between February and mid-May 2026, according to state disclosures reported by New York Focus on July 23, 2026. That group financed ads under a separate front, “New York Delivers,” presented as a coalition of small businesses and workers. Amazon supplied roughly 97% of the group’s funding this year; FedEx, Prologis and the Trucking Association of New York combined for about $173,000, roughly 3%. New York Delivers did not list Amazon as a member as of May 19, 2026, despite Amazon having already routed at least $1.9 million through it. An Amazon-funded AKRF study ($52,500) warned the bill would add up to $5.20 per package, or $664 per household annually, while noting 83% of last-mile facility workers live outside Manhattan and about 80% are minorities.
Mamdani Steps In
“Corporations like Amazon build billion-dollar business models by insulating themselves from accountability through a system of exploitative subcontracting,” Mamdani said, adding in a video: “If Amazon is delivering your packages, they should follow the same rules as any other delivery company.” Rutgers labor studies professor Eric Blanc called it “a great fight for the administration to pick” because it pits “young Black and brown working-class New Yorkers against Jeff Bezos.”
Amazon’s Counter
Spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the legislation “would directly undermine that commitment, threatening the small businesses that deliver to customers, putting the jobs of more than 5,000 of their employees at risk and forcing us to consider relocating delivery operations outside of the city.” DSP owner Rudy Cazares argued, “It’s very easy to say it’s workers against big corporations and that Amazon is the big bad wolf here.” Christine Chan of Highgate Logistics added, “You’re betting that Amazon is going to employ these people directly. I’ll take the other side of that bet.” Caban’s rebuttal: “They use this sort of PR campaign to try to say, ‘Well, no, we’re not the big bad corporation. We’re actually a group of small businesses.'”
The Driver’s View
Amazon driver Luc Rene, backing the bill, says he delivers up to 400 packages a day and that his contractor told him Amazon would not allow a lighter load during extreme weather. NYC delivery workers start around $20/hour; Amazon says its average is closer to $24/hour; a Teamsters deal with an Amazon contractor in California set pay near $30/hour.
What To Watch
The bill has 31+ co-sponsors (some sources cite 34 of 51 members), a working majority. Council Speaker Julie Menin has not taken a public position this year, though she backed an earlier version. For a company with a $2,960,627,335,000 market cap and $775,680,033,000 in trailing revenue, $5 million is a rounding error. The question is whether Amazon’s largest-ever New York political bet can stall a bill that already has the votes, or whether Mamdani has found the corporate villain his mayoralty was built to fight.
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