Amazon warehouse workers across 20 cities have filed at least 37 complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) since February 2020, accusing Amazon of retaliation against employees who attempt to organize or form a union.
Charges filed with the NLRB accusing Amazon of interfering with workers’ right to organize have more than tripled during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, when compared to these types of complaints filed in 2019, according to a report by NBC News.
The recent complaints are six times the number filed in 2018.
The report added that the number of similar charges filed against the tech giant over 2020 have become so noteworthy, that the NLRB is considering whether the “meritorious allegations warrant a consolidated effort between the regions,” according to NLRB spokesman Nelson Carrasco.
Typically, one of 26 regional offices will investigate a charge filed to the NLRB, but on rare occasions, the board will combine cases into a consolidated complaint — as it has previously done with Walmart and McDonald’s — if it believes it has found a pattern emerging at one company.
Amazon warehouse workers interviewed by NBC say they have been fired, disciplined, or retaliated against over protected activity, and allege that the company has, in some cases, selectively enforced its policies on issues such as social distancing, vulgar language, and insubordination in order to target employees speaking up for worker rights.
“As worker activism gains momentum, so, too, has Amazon’s effort to counter it with anti-union propaganda, firing key organizers, surveilling employees and hiring Pinkertons to gather intelligence on warehouse workers,” NBC reports.
The report added that labor experts say Amazon warehouses are also designed to find and crush organizing through surveillance technology, such as scanners workers use to track the rate at which they sort and pack items, mandatory daily surveys, and AI camera systems that detect social-distancing violations.
Amazon spokeswoman Leah Seay, however, argued that scanners are for tracking “inventory, not people,” and that data collected from the mandatory surveys are used to make improvements to employees’ work experiences.
Amazon has also denied allegations that senior staff were trained to keep an eye out for organizers.
“We respect our employees’ right to join, form or not to join a labor union or other lawful organization of their own selection, without fear of retaliation, intimidation or harassment,” Seay said.
Chris Smalls, a former Amazon warehouse worker, told Breitbart News last May that the company hid information of a coronavirus outbreak from employees at one of its distribution centers in New York City.
Smalls was fired by Amazon after he blew the whistle on the outbreak at his warehouse and helped organize a walkout to protest the unsafe working conditions there.
NBC noted that Smalls and other workers — including Gerald Bryson and Derrick Palmer — organized a walkout on March 30 last year, in which they held signs outside the building with messages such as “Treat your workers like your customers” and “Alexa, send us home.”
The report added that Amazon fired or disciplined all three of them in the weeks that followed.
Amazon says it fired Smalls on the day of the protest for violating a 14-day quarantine after coming into contact with an employee who had tested positive for the Wuhan virus.
Smalls, however, said that a lot of workers had come in contact with that same employee, and for longer periods of time, therefore, alleging that he was singled out for speaking up.
A week later, Palmer, Bryson, and Smalls — who by this time no longer worked at Amazon — attended a second protest outside of the facility.
Bryson was fired two weeks later for violating Amazon’s “vulgar language” policy after a two-minute interaction with another employee who disagreed with the protest, NBC reports.
“This is what they do,” Smalls told Breitbart News last year of Amazon’s measures to block unionization of its employees. “They are an anti-unionized company, and they continue to retaliate against people who speak out. There have been a number of firings since I’ve been fired now. They fired [and] pretty much dismantled my whole crew, one by one.”
“Those are the things — the tactics — that they use,” he added. “It’s intimidation, retaliation, and discrimination. So, it’s a shame to work for them at this moment. I thought they were a good company, but it turns out that this virus exposed a lot, and it exposed who they really are.”
In February, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the state was suing Amazon for failing to provide adequate coronavirus health and safety protocols at its distribution centers and accused the company of illegally retaliating against employees who complained.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram.
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