NLRB: Amazon Illegally Fired Activist Employees

A recent report from the New York Times states that Amazon has been found to have illegally retaliated against two prominent internal critics by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The New York Times reports that the NLRB has ruled that Amazon illegally retaliated against two prominent internal critics when it fired them last year.

The NYT writes:

The employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, had publicly pushed the company to reduce its impact on climate change and address concerns about its warehouse workers.

The agency told Ms. Cunningham and Ms. Costa that it would accuse Amazon of unfair labor practices if the company did not settle the case, according to correspondence that Ms. Cunningham shared with The New York Times.

….

The two women were among dozens of Amazon workers who in the last year told the labor board about company retaliations, but in most other cases the workers had complained about pandemic safety.

An Amazon spokesperson told the New York Times:

We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against our internal policies, all of which are lawful.

We terminated these employees not for talking publicly about working conditions, safety or sustainability but, rather, for repeatedly violating internal policies.

This is not the first time Amazon has clashed with the NLRB, Breitbart News recently reported that the NLRB rejected a request from Amazon to install a video camera system to watch over boxes containing thousands of ballots in the company’s high-stakes union election in Alabama.

Lisa Henderson, the acting regional director at the NLRB, said in a ruling:

Though the mail ballot election in this matter is large, it is not, as the Employer asserts, of a ‘special nature.’

The Region will conduct the ballot count within view of observers participating via virtual platform as well as in-person observers, and in accordance with Agency procedures and protocols, including those for securing ballot boxes.

Amazon requested that the NLRB apply other enhanced security measures around the ballot boxes in an attempt to prevent tampering. Amazon reportedly asked the NLRB to change or reset security locks on the storage room’s door where the ballots would be held, provide Amazon and the RWDS with an electronic or physical log of when the storage room door is opened, and user tamper-proof tape on the ballot boxes or storage room door to “ensure no unauthorized access to the envelopes, ballot boxes, or storage room occurs.”

Amazon has previously clashed with the NLRB over the union vote, objecting to plans to offer mail-in votes to workers due to the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon stated at the time that it believes the best approach to an election would be having it conducted in person, and that it “provided the NLRB with a safe, confidential and convenient proposal for associates to vote on-site, which is in the best interest of all parties—associate convenience, vote fidelity and timeliness of vote count.”