The National Labor Relations Board has determined that Amazon illegally interrogated a warehouse worker who led colleagues on a strike by the company manipulation from Coronavirus pandemic, for Monday’s Motherboard report.
Amazon worker Jonathan Bailey led 13 workers on a walk from a company warehouse in Queens County, New York, on March 20, 2020, after a colleague tested positive for the virus and was sent home. This happened another outing to the same store two days earlier in similar circumstances, for which Bailey was also a main organizer.
After the two interventions, Amazon sent an executive who represented himself as a former FBI employee to lure Bailey to a meeting and accuse him of engaging in conduct that could be construed as harassment of colleagues. The manager told Bailey that he should be notified before any further action, Motherboard reports:
The next day, a regional manager who introduced himself as a former FBI agent removed Bailey from management offices and questioned Bailey about his role at the exit, telling him his behavior could be harassment. and demanded that Bailey contact him before any future departure, according to Bailey’s NLRB testimony.
“He interrogated me for an hour and a half,” Bailey told Motherboard. “A week later they called me back at the office and wrote to harass me, saying people were hurt by what I did.” The motherboard obtained an audio recording of this meeting.
Federal labor laws prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who try to unionize or take collective action against unfair or dangerous conditions.
Bailey filed a complaint with the NLRB and reached an agreement with Amazon on documents dated March 3, 2021. The solution resolved part of the problem, but the NLRB still ruled that Amazon had breached at least four federal labor laws. times. Specific violations included ordering employees not to organize “without prior notice. [them]”Threatening to discipline organizers and”[interrogating] employees about their involvement, ”according to agency documents obtained by Motherboard.
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The NLRB dismissed three other lawsuits against Amazon over the same matter, according to Motherboard. As a result of the agreement, Amazon will have to put flyers to notify warehouse staff that they will not confront or be asked about protected activities.
The motherboard had previously reported Amazon neglected to prepare for pandemic conditions, despite having a large corporate security division designed to control from pandemic-type threats to worker behavior and labor and environmental movements. At the same time, workers were facing pressure to work even harder Amazon shipments increased due to blocking commands imposed to limit the spread of the virus. Amazon internal documents obtained by the site claims by Queens facility workers that the company had violated New York’s paid leave law by dismissing workers who did not show up on their shifts, as well as Amazon’s policy of having a few shifts 12-hour work. According to reports, Amazon had done the same supplies such as hand sanitizer, sterilizing wipes, disinfectant and water are depleted for employees suffering from “thermal stress” at the company’s sweaty facilities.
“While we disagree with the allegations made in the case, we are pleased to leave this matter behind,” Amazon spokeswoman Leah Say said on the motherboard. “The health and safety of our employees is our top priority and we are proud to provide inclusive environments, where employees can excel without fear of retaliation, intimidation or harassment.”
“Amazon fabricated false and unfair disciplinary measures to build fake cases against workers who lead the struggle to be treated as more than the benefits of Amazon’s profit factory,” he told Amazonians United New York City, the group that organized the excursions. “We thank the NLRB for dedicating countless hours and validating what we already knew was true. Ultimately, it is our solidarity that protects us and will win us a better world.”
Amazon, run by the richest man in the world, has long been confronted by workers who say the company ignores them habitually health and safety in favor of profits, and the NLRB has ruled that the company retaliated illegally against workers who he led strikes in Chicago and another worker on Staten Island who protested outside an Amazon installation on your day off. The company has not been able to close a union in warehouse in Alabama where workers will vote on setting up a bargaining unit in late March, while there are employees from other facilities across the country considering doing the same. President Joe Biden effectively approved Amazon’s unionization efforts this month have issued a clear warning to the company that workers have a right to form a union without management interference.