Nearly a year ago, Amazon fired two employees who criticized the company. The employees publicly urged the company to do more to reduce its carbon footprint and distributed a petition among Amazon employees supporting better compensation and support for warehouse workers. Now, the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, has found that Amazon acted illegally and retaliated when he fired them, according to a report by The New York Times.
Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were both designers at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, and their discussions with management began in 2018 when they joined a group of employees backing petitioners from shareholders and urging the company to do more about climate change. to combat. (The group received Amazon shares as part of its compensation.)
They and a handful of other employees called the case together. On September 20, 2018, thousands of employees walked out in protest of the company’s climate policy. Lawyers have told Cunningham, Costa and others that they have violated company policies that restrict employees from talking about Amazon in public. The group eventually wrote an open letter, signed by more than 8,700 Amazon employees, to Jeff Bezos, CEO, and the board of directors.
When the pandemic got steamy, Cunningham and Costa became a little more concerned about the conditions in Amazon’s warehouses. There were workers whose work was strenuous under normal circumstances, under stress due to the pandemic. Supply chains around the world have been shut down, and many people under lock and key have turned to Amazon. Order volumes have risen, increasing workload at the fulfillment centers. Magazine workers’ status as’ essential ‘made them choose the orders, even after COVID-19 was diagnosed in their colleagues. In one warehouse in Minnesota, infection rates were four times higher than in the surrounding community.
Cunningham and Costa, along with other Amazon technology employees, have distributed internal petitions seeking comprehensive payroll, sick leave and childcare for warehouse workers. The group also planned a virtual event for warehouse and technology workers so that the latter could hear first-hand about the former’s working conditions.
Shortly afterwards, Amazon fired both Cunningham and Costa, claiming that they had “repeatedly violated internal policies”. The two women lodged complaints with the NLRB.
The NLRB recently told Amazon that if the complaints are not settled with Cunningham and Costa, the agency will formally accuse the company of unfair labor practices. Such cases may result in settlements, orders or remedial orders.
Increasing investigation
The NLRB’s determination came at a time when Amazon is increasingly scrutinizing the way it treats its employees – and how it responds to such criticism. Amazon recently filed another NLRB complaint, this time with a warehouse worker who helped organize an outing at a fulfillment center in Queens, New York. Jonathan Bailey, the worker, says he was falsely accused of harassment in a business that tried to stifle his union organizing activities. He continues to work at the same Amazon warehouse, and Amazon had to post notices reminding employees of their right to organize.
Amazon has aggressively defended its actions in public opinion court. Amazon PR’s Twitter account was recently filled with a number of tweets that were so confrontational that a security engineer at the company submitted a support card because he thought the account had been hacked. One of the tweets questions the truth of reports that Amazon employees and contractors use bottles to relieve themselves while at work. “You do not really believe the thing of fluffing in bottles, do you?” the tweet said in response to a message by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI). The company later sent an apology to the congressman. “The tweet was wrong,” Amazon said.
The cases of Bailey, Cunningham and Costa are just three of at least 37 NLRB complaints filed against Amazon since February 2020, according to an NBC News investigation, suggesting Walmart had only eight over the same period.
NLRB complaints are usually dealt with at each of its 26 regional offices. But the sheer number filed against Amazon, the agency is considering a national investigation into the company’s labor practices.