Has Amazon Against Its Employees Illegally Fired Critics? Federal government to begin review

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By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business

A National Labor Relations Board judge is expected to look into a complaint Wednesday that Amazon last year illegally fired two company employees who had sharply criticized the company.

An administrative judge is due to hear the charges, which were filed with the NLRB in October by a local branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in Washington state.

The lawsuit alleges Amazon violated federal labor law by sacking two employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, who had organized workers around climate action and storage conditions during the pandemic. The NLRB ruled in April on the merits of Cunningham and Costa’s charges, which led to a trial before an administrative law judge.

Here’s what you need to know about the case.

Who are the former Amazon employees?

Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were both user experience designers at Amazon and founding members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group of corporate employees who came together to advocate for climate issues.

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Former employees helped organize Amazon workers in 2019 to stage a walkout to protest Amazon’s response to climate change and also spoke about the conditions of Amazon warehouse workers.

What do workers blame Amazon for?

Workers accuse Amazon of violating their rights to self-organize, form or assist unions and bargain collectively under national labor relations law.

The complaint says they were fired in April 2020 after “engaging in various protected and concerted activities” with other employees to support Amazon warehouse workers in the United States. Amazon, according to the complaint, fired the workers because of these activities and to discourage other workers from doing so.

Amazon defended its dismissal of workers on Tuesday.

“We support the right of every employee to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but this does not come with blanket immunity from all internal policies,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an e- mail. “We fired these employees not for talking about working conditions or safety, but for repeatedly violating internal policies.” The company said workers violated its policies on external communications and solicitation.

When do we expect a decision?

The virtual hearing before the administrative judge is expected to last several days and may include testimony.

Even after the hearing is over, an administrative judge rarely makes a decision immediately, said Mark Gaston Pearce, executive director of the Workers’ Rights Institute at Georgetown University Law Center and former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, in an email. .

Both parties have the option of submitting post-hearing briefs for the judge to assess, and a decision could take up to six months to be rendered, he said.

Once the judge has made a decision, either party can appeal to the five-member National Labor Relations Board, which ultimately decides whether Amazon has broken the law.

The judge’s decision is therefore essentially “equivalent to a recommendation to council,” he said.

Did other employees allege that Amazon violated employment law?

Cunningham and Costa are the latest claim of retaliation by Amazon workers in which the federal agency has found merit.

In November, the NLRB filed a lawsuit against Amazon over the unlawful dismissal of a warehouse worker in Pennsylvania.

According to an analysis of NLRB data by NBC News, at least 37 retaliation charges were filed with the agency against Amazon in 20 cities from February 2020 to March this year.

– Sara O’Brien of CNN Business contributed to this article.

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