Amazon has said it may close more than a dozen warehouses and move thousands of workers out of New York City over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s labor bill, and industry experts say the company is likely to make good on the threat.

The Post reported that Amazon warned it could shutter last-mile facilities and shift jobs if the Delivery Protection Act becomes law. The measure would force the company to directly hire upwards of 5,000 delivery workers now employed by third-party contractors.

Amazon does not directly employ delivery drivers anywhere else in the country. Experts and local contractors say the bill threatens the model that keeps packages moving through one of the nation’s densest delivery markets.

Queens Council Member Tiffany Cabán first introduced the bill a year ago and reintroduced it in 2026. Mayor Zohran Mamdani supports it. The City Council has roughly 34 co-signers, yet no vote is scheduled.

Mamdani has faced separate fights over revenue and administration, including court pressure on his tax plans. The delivery fight adds another front where policy aims collide with job and cost risks.

Quebec closures left nearly 5,000 people without work

Industry voices point straight at Quebec. Early last year Amazon closed seven warehouses near Montreal after a labor fight that included a Laval site where the CSN organized about 300 workers.

By March 2025 some 1,900 Canadians across those warehouses and 2,800 delivery contractors had lost their jobs. Amazon still pays rent on more than 1.6 million square feet of vacant Montreal space and has offered at least two facilities as subleases.

Kris Basmagy, who owns DashWave Delivery and handles Amazon packages on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with 150 workers, put the parallel in plain terms.

Basmagy said:

"Look at what happened in Quebec. There was pressure on Amazon’s model, and it pulled out."

He added that nothing stops Amazon from replacing city sites with warehouses rising along the New Jersey Turnpike. Same-day and same-morning deliveries common in the city could slip to the next day, according to a source familiar with Amazon’s operations.

Marc Wulfraat, president of Montreal logistics firm MWPVL International, said the pattern is deliberate.

Wulfraat stated:

"Amazon will retaliate, because it has to send a firm message to the rest of the country that ‘If you mess with us, this is what will happen.’"

He also noted Amazon closes buildings “left, right and center” when union activity appears in its global operations. Amazon denies the Quebec shutdowns stemmed from CSN organizing and says a large Canadian logistics firm, IntelCom, took over deliveries without lasting service harm.

Fifteen last-mile sites and 7,000 jobs sit in the crosshairs

Former Amazon executive and logistics consultant Brittain Ladd said the company would not hesitate if it saw a threat to its model that other cities might copy.

Ladd said:

"Amazon wouldn’t blink about shutting down the 15 facilities in New York City if it felt that the legislation was a threat to its business model. This is about a model that could be copied in other cities."

Those 15 last-mile warehouses employ about 2,000 staff on top of the 5,000 contractor drivers. Amazon employs more than 12,000 hourly workers in New York directly or indirectly, more than twice its Quebec footprint.

Facilities include sites in Red Hook, Brooklyn; Maspeth, Queens; and an 87,000-square-foot Manhattan location at 706 11th Ave. cited in a report from City Comptroller Mark Levine. The bill would not touch the 5,500 workers at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, who voted to unionize in 2022 but still lack a collective bargaining agreement.

Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly defended the current setup.

Kelly said:

"New York City is one of the largest and most complex delivery regions in the country. It’s best served by a network of local small businesses deeply embedded in their communities and leveraging our operations infrastructure."

The company maintains that closing warehouses would raise delivery times and prices. A February 2025 class action in Quebec claimed Prime deliveries stretched to four-to-six days after the closures; plaintiffs later said the disruption lasted about two months. A Quebec court ruled in May that the case can proceed. Lawyer Saro Turner of Slater Vecchio said Amazon later “got their act together and stopped the delays.”

Independent owners say their companies would disappear

About 40 independent companies employ the 5,000 delivery workers the bill targets. Joe Artus runs WGA Transit, which recruits formerly incarcerated and homeless workers to deliver Amazon packages in Harlem. He employs 189 people.

Artus said:

"I have a 21-month-old daughter. If this thing passes, there is no way for my company to exist or to keep my 189 employees."

Basmagy described the political focus as indifferent to the fallout on owners and families.

Basmagy said:

"There is a laser focus on punishing Amazon no matter what the repercussions might be, what it does to us as business owners, fathers and husbands. It’s as if we no longer exist."

Proponents argue the bill will raise pay and improve safety for delivery workers. The Teamsters issued a statement accusing Amazon of saying or doing “whatever it takes to deny workers stronger rights and wages and abdicate its responsibilities for its own employees.” Amazon remains locked in litigation over labor tactics in Bessemer, Alabama, and Staten Island. In April the National Labor Relations Board ordered the company to the bargaining table with the Teamsters at the Staten Island site; Amazon has sued to challenge the board’s legitimacy.

That labor tension sits alongside other political storms around the mayor, from Jewish leaders condemning his Oct. 7 remarks to broader Democratic silence. The delivery bill keeps advancing even as those fights continue.

Cost study and quiet talks point to real trade-offs

An AKFR study bankrolled by Amazon projected the Delivery Protection Act would cost New Yorkers an extra $664 a year, or about $5.20 per package. The figure covers deliveries by other firms as well, including FedEx and DoorDash.

A source close to negotiations said the bill “will have to pass in some form,” especially with mayoral support, and that the final version may leave “both sides unhappy.” City Council Speaker Julie Menin is among several members described as uncomfortable with potential job losses. Compromises under discussion include letting independent contractors keep making deliveries while adding safety requirements.

Mamdani’s administration has already drawn judicial rebukes on other fronts, including a judge ordering bungled second-home tax notices scrapped. The labor measure now tests whether City Hall will weigh contractor jobs and delivery speed against its preferred hiring rules.

Amazon spent hundreds of millions building the Montreal space it later emptied, per Wulfraat. In New York the stakes are larger: more workers, denser routes, and a model other cities could try to copy. High-profile criticism has followed the mayor elsewhere, including when Netanyahu called him out by name at the UN, yet the Delivery Protection Act still sits with strong Council backing and no scheduled vote.

Democratic leaders have stayed largely quiet on separate Mamdani controversies, as when Schumer and Jeffries offered no cover during Israel-remarks blowback. The same City Hall pushing this labor revise is the one navigating those storms while small delivery firms warn they will simply vanish.

When politicians revise a working delivery system to score labor points, the people who lose first are the contractors, their employees, and the customers left waiting on the next package.