The ground is shifting beneath Amazon ’s gigantic - sized animal foot . Just day after workers at a Staten Island , New York warehousevoted to create the first Amazon unionin the U.S. , securities regulators authorise a shareholder voter turnout on an investigation into its treatment of warehouse worker .
The union ’s triumph at the caller is n’t a done deal , though . Amazon lodge an expostulation Thursday to the successful organisation elbow grease in New York , and the company is fighting objection register against it in Bessemer , Alabama on the same day in hopes of uphold the results of a contested unionization crusade . undertaking regulators , meanwhile , say Thursday that they would seek to ban the sort of mandatory anti - union meetings Amazon used to deter workers from voting for unionisation .
Although the bounteous tech behemoth is down , it ’s not out , and there ’s no doubt that it ’s gearing up for a fight . The first punch : banningwords like “ marriage , ” “ convenience , ” “ survive wage , ” “ yield raise , ” “ hard worker labor , ” “ plantation , ” “ grievance , ” and “ multifariousness ” on a planned company chat app . The second : legal complaints .
Photo: David Ryder (Getty Images)
Amazon objects to union victory in New York, claims employees were threatened
On the organised labor front , Amazon is dealing with two totally dissimilar scenarios : One in New York , where an travail to organise worker succeeded last Friday , and another in Bessemer , Alabama , where a dispute unionization voting failed the same daylight . It ’s punching back in both showcase .
In New York , the ecommerce giant is object to the sum victory in a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board . According to its filing , which can be viewedhere , Amazon is claiming unification organizers threatened employee to force them into vote yes , step in with employees waiting in line to vote , hang around near the polling stations to restrain elector , and threatened immigrants with loss of benefit if they did n’t vote for the union .
Amazon is also complain about the actions of the regional branch of the NLRB involved in the election , accusing it of lowering elector widening by the way it conducted polling periods , “ which ensue in inordinately farseeing waits . ”
An attorney representing the newly form trades union , Eric Milner , told Reuters on Thursday that Amazon ’s accusation were false and that they would be overruled .
“ To say that the Amazon Labor Union was peril employee is really laughable , ” Milner , who is part of jurisprudence business firm Simon & Milner , tell . “ The Amazon Labor Union is Amazon employee . ”
The company has until this Friday to render its official objections and until April 22 to file the proof the back up its claims . Amazon did not reply to a asking from Gizmodo for gossip on the New York unification ’s reception on Friday . We ’ll verify to update this article if we hear back .
Amazon accused of illegally interfering in union vote in Bessemer (again)
Down South in Bessemer — where it a marriage vote give out for asecond metre , although there are still about 400 challenged voter turnout that need to be counted — the Retail , Wholesale and Department Store Union ( RWDSU)accused Amazonof illegally interfere in the election and file 21 objections to the NLRB Thursday . The RWDSU arrogate that the company “ created an atmosphere of discombobulation , coercion and/or fear of reprisals and thus interfered with the employees ’ freedom of choice . ”
Among RWDSU ’s manyaccusations : Amazon allegedly fire an employee who appeared in pro - Federal literature and who speak in favor of the union during mandatory meetings . Another objection claim that Amazon ’s agents engaged in surveillance of trades union organizer by call the organiser ’ home . The most serious , however , is the North ’s claim that , the 24-hour interval before mail ballots were due , Amazon jeopardise an employee with end the storage warehouse if the organization vote come after .
“ prole at Amazon have digest a needlessly long and aggressive fight to unionize their workplace , with Amazon doing everything it can to spread misinformation and deceive actor , ” Stuart Appelbaum , president of the RWDSU , said in a statement last hebdomad .
Nonetheless , Amazon is filing its own objections to the pairing ’s behavior in Bessemer . grant toCNBC , the company is take result with the union ’s communication theory to actor about a mailbox near the warehouse . Amazon also arrogate that the NLRB ’s conclusion to check a mail - in vote let down voter siding in the election .
“ We ’ve said from the beginning that we want our employees ’ voices to be find out , and we hope the NLRB counts every valid voting , ” Amazon interpreter Kelly Nantel said .
The RWDSU is asking the National Labor Relations Board to throw a hearing to evaluate its objections and ultimately settle if the election results in Bessemer should be jell aside .
A shareholder proposal calling for an audit of Amazon working conditions will get a vote
In a letterobtained by Reutersdated April 6 , the Securities and Exchange Commission said Amazon could not refuse to put to a suffrage a shareholder resolution name for an independent audited account and paper on function shape at the company . Amazon had argued that the proposal — brought forward by Thomas Dadashi Tazehozi , an investor with the retail militant platform Tulipshare — did not relate to normal business concern operations .
UnderSEC ruler , these type of operations are intend to be resolved by a party ’s management or board of directors . In this fount , however , the SEC has supposedly shot down Amazon ’s asking to omit the answer .
“ In our persuasion , the Tazehozi Proposal transcends ordinary business organization matters , ” the SEC said , accord to the alphabetic character obtain byReuters .
This signify that shareholders will vote on whether to commission an audited account of storage warehouse workings circumstance during Amazon ’s annual general shareholders meeting on May 25 . Gizmodo reached out to Amazon for comment on the SEC ’s purported decision on Friday but did not receive a response by the clip of publication .
An end to mandatory anti-union meetings?
Besides ruling on the outcomes of the union elections in New York and Bessemer , the NLRB may press in on mandatory anti - union meeting , also know as captive consultation meeting , held by Amazon and other employer in which they boost their employee to vote against collective organization .
Jennifer Abruzzo , general counsel at the NLRB , issued a memoon Thursday announcing that she will ask the board to adjudge these compulsory merging illegal . Abruzzo argues that employee have a right to mind or a right to refrain from listening to employer speech on labor governing body . force employees to attend meeting under the threat of discipline discourages them “ from do their right field to refrain from listening to this speech , ” Abruzzo says in her memoranda .
“ This licence to coerce is an anomaly in toil practice of law , discrepant with the [ National Labor Relations ] Act ’s protection of employees ’ free pick . It is establish on a fundamental misapprehension of employer ’ speech rights , ” Abruzzo say in a statement . “ I trust that the NLRB case common law , which has tolerated such meetings , is at odds with fundamental labor - law principle , our statutory lyric , and our Congressional authorization . ”
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