The National Labor Relations Board has accused Amazon, or NLRB, of threatening, interrogating, and surveilling workers at its warehouse in New York.
According to the NLRB, this is Amazon's way of discouraging its workers from unionizing.
Amazon Threatens Workers
According to Motherboard, Amazon brought a union avoidance consultant to the warehouse and told the workers that it would be "futile for them to choose the union as their bargaining representative."
The union avoidance consultant said union organizing at the New York warehouse would fail anyway because the organizers were "thugs."
The NLRB's complaint also said that the e-commerce giant's representatives interrogated workers about union activities.
They also promised the workers to fix issues in the warehouse as long as they don't support the union and don't distribute any union literature, according to Engadget.
The NLRB alleges that security guards confiscated union literature from workers and told them that they could not distribute the materials without the company's permission.
In 2021, Amazon's warehouse workers in New York filed a petition to unionize with the board, but they had to back out because they did not get enough signatures to be approved.
The warehouse workers re-filed the application in December 2021, reaching the union vote threshold. Kelly Nantel, Amazon's spokesperson, denied all allegations and told Motherboard that the allegations are false. .
The allegations come from a series of unfair labor practices charges filed by workers last year. The NLRB investigated the incidents and found merit that they happened.
Amazon has until Feb. 10 to respond to the complaint, and the hearing for the unfair labor practices charges will be held on Apr. 5.
Aside from detailing the allegations in its complaint, the NLRB has also outlined a series of remedies it wants the company to follow.
The board wants Amazon to train its supervisors, managers, security guards, and consultants on workers' rights to organize and unionize.
Companies vs. Unionization
Under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, employers can't interfere with or retaliate against employees involved in union activity, including by creating the impression of surveillance of union organizing.
In the past few years, the board has repeatedly found evidence that the e-commerce giant has illegally violated these laws, but the penalties for doing so are not significant, according to Business Insider.
Amazon has never been required to train its consultants or managers on laws that protect workers who unionize. The e-commerce giant will now have the chance to settle with the labor board or go to trial.
The labor board has required the e-commerce giant to read a notice with workers' union rights aloud to all of its employees at the New York facility.
Amazon was also required to email notices with workers' union rights to all supervisors and managers at the facility. There are more than 5,000 workers employed at the facility in New York.
In April 2021, after the defeat of an Amazon union election in Alabama, other warehouse workers started their own union drive in New York.
Amazon responded with a campaign that has included text messages, mandatory meetings, and anti-union flyers.
Amazon has been going above and beyond in defending its brand. Last year, it was revealed that Amazon has a group of employees whose job is to defend the company and its former CEO Jeff Bezos.
Earlier this year, Amazon fired Daequen Smith for attempting to organize a union.
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Written by Sophie Webster
