Almost a year ago, Amazon fired two employees who had criticized the company. Employees publicly asked the company to do more to reduce its carbon footprint and circulated a petition among Amazon employees supporting better pay and support for warehouse workers. Now, the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, has found that Amazon acted illegally and in retaliation when it fired them, according to a report by The New York Times.
Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were designers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, and their disputes with management began in 2018, when they joined a group of employees who supported shareholder petitions asking the company to do more to combat climate change. . (The group received shares from Amazon as part of its compensation.)
They and a handful of other employees brought others together for the cause. On September 20, 2018, thousands of employees went out in protest against the company’s climate policies. The lawyers told Cunningham, Costa and others that, by speaking out, they violated company policies that prevent employees from talking about Amazon publicly. The group ended up writing an open letter, which was signed by more than 8,700 Amazon workers, to CEO Jeff Bezos and the board of directors.
Just over a year later, as the pandemic was gaining momentum, Cunningham and Costa began to worry about Amazon’s deposit conditions. There, workers whose jobs were strenuous under normal conditions were under greater stress due to the pandemic. Supply chains around the world have been disrupted and many arrested people have turned to Amazon. Order volumes have increased, increasing the workload at distribution centers. The warehouse workers’ status as “essential” kept them separating orders, even after their colleagues were diagnosed with COVID-19. In a Minnesota deposit, infection rates were four times higher than in the surrounding community.
Cunningham and Costa teamed up with other Amazon technology employees to circulate petitions internally seeking increased hazard allowance, sick leave and daycare for warehouse employees. The group also planned a virtual event for warehouses and technology workers, allowing them to hear first-hand about their working conditions.
Shortly after, Amazon fired Cunningham and Costa, claiming that they had “repeatedly violated internal policies”. Both women filed complaints to the NLRB.
The NLRB recently told Amazon that if it does not resolve the complaints with Cunningham and Costa, the agency would formally accuse the company of unfair labor practices. Such cases may result in agreements, injunctions or redress orders.
Increased scrutiny
NLRB’s determination came at a time when Amazon is under increasing scrutiny for the way it deals with its employees – and for responding to these criticisms. Amazon recently resolved another NLRB complaint, this time with a warehouse worker who helped organize a strike at the Queens distribution center in New York. Jonathan Bailey, the worker, says he was falsely accused of harassment in a company proposal to stifle his union activities. He continues to work at the same warehouse as Amazon, and Amazon had to issue notices reminding employees of their right to organize.
Amazon has aggressively defended its actions in the court of public opinion. Amazon PR’s Twitter account was recently populated with a series of tweets so conflicting that a company security engineer filed a support ticket because he thought the account had been hacked. One of these tweets questioned the veracity of reports saying that Amazon employees and contractors used bottles to relieve themselves at work. “You really don’t believe in this thing about peeing in bottles, do you?” The tweet said in response to a message posted by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI). Subsequently, the company posted an apology to the congressman. “The tweet was incorrect,” said Amazon.
Bailey, Cunningham and Costa’s cases are just three of the 37 NLRB complaints filed against Amazon since February 2020, according to an investigation by NBC News, which points out that Walmart had only eight in the same period.
Typically, NLRB complaints are handled at each of its 26 regional offices. But the sheer number of lawsuits filed against Amazon prompted the agency to consider a national investigation into the company’s labor practices.