Amazon Illegally Fired Activist Workers, Labor Board Finds
The two employees had publicly pushed the company to reduce its impact
on climate change and address concerns about its warehouse workers.
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Emily Cunningham, left, and Maren Costa outside Amazon’s Seattle
headquarters four months before the company fired them last April.
Emily Cunningham, left, and Maren Costa outside Amazon’s Seattle
headquarters four months before the company fired them last
April.Credit...Jenny Riffle for The New York Times
Karen Weise <https://www.nytimes.com/by/karen-weise>
ByKaren Weise <https://www.nytimes.com/by/karen-weise>
NYT, April 5, 2021
SEATTLE — Amazon illegally retaliated against two of its most prominent
internal critics when it fired them last year, the National Labor
Relations Board has determined.
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 staff 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 case would then go before an administrative law judge.
“It’s a moral victory and really shows that we are on the right side of
history and the right side of the law,” Ms. Cunningham said.
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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.
“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,” said Jaci Anderson, an
Amazon spokeswoman. “We terminated these employees not for talking
publicly about working conditions, safety or sustainability but, rather,
for repeatedly violating internal policies.”
Claims of unfair labor practices at Amazon have been common enough that
the labor agency may turn them into a national investigation,the agency
told NBC News
<https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/fired-interrogated-disciplined-amazon-warehouse-organizers-allege-year-retaliation-n1262367>.
The agency typically handles investigations in its regional offices.
While Amazon’s starting wage of $15 an hour is twice the federal
minimum, its labor practices face heightened scrutiny in Washington and
elsewhere. The focus has escalated in the past year, as online orders
surged during the pandemic and Amazon expanded its U.S. work force to
almost one million people. Amazon’s warehouse employees are deemed
essential workers and could not work from home.
This week, the national labor board is counting thousands of ballots
that will determine whether almost 6,000 workers will form a union at an
Amazon warehouse outside Birmingham, Ala., in the largest and most
viable labor threat in the company’s history. The union has said the
workers face excessive pressure to produce and are intensely monitored
by the company to make sure quotas are met.
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The results could alter the shape of the labor movement and one of
America’s largest private employers.
Ms. Costa and Ms. Cunningham, who worked as designers at Amazon’s
Seattle headquarters, began criticizing the company publicly in 2018.
They were part of a small group of employees whowanted the company to do
more
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/technology/tech-workers-company-stock-shareholder-activism.html>to
address its climate impact. The group, Amazon Employees for Climate
Justice, gotmore than 8,700 colleagues
<https://amazonemployees4climatejustice.medium.com/public-letter-to-jeff-bezos-and-the-amazon-board-of-directors-82a8405f5e38>tosupport
its efforts
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/technology/amazon-climate-change-letter.html>.
Over time, Ms. Cunningham and Ms. Costa broadened their protests. After
Amazontold them that they had violated
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/02/amazon-threatens-fire-outspoken-employee-critics-its-environmental-policies/>its
external communications policy by speaking publicly about the business,
their group organized400 employees
<https://amazonemployees4climatejustice.medium.com/amazon-employees-share-our-views-on-company-business-f5abcdea849>to
also speak out, purposely violating the policy to make a point.
They also began raising concerns about safety in Amazon’s warehouses at
the start of the pandemic. Amazonfired
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/business/stock-market-covid-coronavirus.html#link-b8bac86>Ms.
Costa and Ms. Cunningham last April, not long after their group had
announced an internal event for warehouse workers to speak to tech
employees about their workplace conditions.
After the women were fired, several Democratic senators, including
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California,wrote
Amazon expressing
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/technology/amazon-coronavirus-whistleblowers.html>their
concerns over potential retaliation. And Tim Bray, an internet pioneer
and a former vice president at Amazon’s cloud computing group,resigned
in protest
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/technology/amazon-critic-tim-bray.html>.
Mr. Bray said he was pleased to hear of the labor board’s findings and
hoped Amazon settled the case. “The policy up to now has been ‘admit
nothing, concede nothing,’” he said. “This is their chance to rethink
that a little bit.”
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Ms. Cunningham said that, despite the company’s denial, she believed
that she and Ms. Costa were prime targets for Amazon because they were
the most visible members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.
ImageThe National Labor Relations Board also found in favor of Jonathan
Bailey, who led an Amazon walkout in Queens last year.
The National Labor Relations Board also found in favor of Jonathan
Bailey, who led an Amazon walkout in Queens last year.Credit...Landon
Speers for The New York Times
The labor board also upheld a complaint involving Jonathan Bailey, a
co-founder of Amazonians United, a labor advocacy group. The agency
filed a complaint against Amazon based on Mr. Bailey’s accusation that
the company broke the law when it interrogated him after a walkout last
year at the Queens warehouse where he works.
“They recognized that Amazon violated our rights,” Mr. Bailey said. “I
think the message that it communicates that workers should hear and
understand is, yes, we’re all experiencing it. But also a lot of us are
fighting.”
Amazon settled Mr. Bailey’s case, without admitting wrongdoing, and
agreed to post notices informing employees of their rights in the break
room. Ms. Anderson, the Amazon spokeswoman, said the company disagreed
with allegations made in Mr. Bailey’s case. “We are proud to provide
inclusive environments, where employees can excel without fear of
retaliation, intimidation or harassment,” she said.
Kate Congercontributed reporting.
Karen Weise is a technology correspondent based in Seattle, covering
Amazon, Microsoft, and the region's tech scene. Before joining The Times
in 2018, she worked for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News, as
well as ProPublica.@kyweise <https://twitter.com/kyweise>
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