Amazon worker organization
Some warehouse workers of Amazon, the largest American e-commerce retailer with 750,000 employees, have organized for workplace improvements in light of the company's scrutinized labor practices and stance against unions.
As the second-largest American employer[1] and the largest American e-commerce retailer with over one million workers and rapidly expanding, Amazon's warehouse labor practices have been subject to continued scrutiny, including reporting on work conditions, rising injury rates, worker surveillance, and efforts to block unionization.
[5] Despite increasing its minimum wage to $15/hour, providing healthcare benefits and COVID-19 testing, labor advocates and government officials have criticized Amazon's warehouse working conditions.
[7] On April 1, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board announced that Amazon workers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York City voted to approve the union.
In response, the company set up a section on its internal website giving advice to managers on how to spot workers attempting to organize and how to convince them not to.
The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech) accused the company of violating union laws and claimed Amazon managers subjected them to intimidation and heavy propaganda.
[8][6] When other businesses shut down during COVID-19 pandemic safety measures, the welfare and salary of workers ensuring the delivery of goods, including Amazon's labor, received renewed attention.
[1] In December 2020, the National Labor Relations Board found merit to a complaint that a Staten Island warehouse worker's firing was an illegal retaliation for organizing for pandemic safety procedure.
The union filed a complaint and Amazon settled with the National Labor Relations Board, agreeing to post notices but not having to concede legal violations or fines.
[20] Bessemer warehouse workers filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in November to hold a unionization vote.
[20] The company retained anti-union lawyers Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, the same firm Amazon used to successfully fight the Delaware warehouse unionization effort in 2014.
[6] During the drive, Amazon held mandatory meetings to hear the company's anti-union position and hung signage to discourage unionization.
Representatives Andy Levin, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Terri Sewell, Nikema Williams and US Senator Bernie Sanders, among many others.
[20] The RWDSU filed unfair labor practice charges against Amazon before the NLRB, alleging that the company interfered in employees' right to "vote in a free and fair election".
[32] In August 2021, an NLRB report on the Bessemer union drive found that "a free and fair election was impossible" and that "possibility that the employer's misconduct influenced some of these 2,000 eligible voters [who did not vote].
The NLRB filed a federal complaint against Amazon after finding merit to the worker's claims of company retaliation for protected activities.
Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, both user experience designers, were fired for violating internal policies in April 2020, which the NLRB later determined had been unlawful resulting in a board settlement involving back pay and notice-posting around employees' right to organize.
[52] In April 2024, a union under the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) submitted accreditation request to represent the employees of the DXT4 warehouse in Laval, Quebec.
[56] While indicating that the decision was a cost saving measure and related not the unionization of the DXT4 warehouse[56] other media received information that it was a factor.
[60] The action prompted comparisons with Walmart Canada's response to unionization, as the company was fined for violating the Quebec Labour Code.
[64] Amazon and other American technology companies with philosophies against organized labor are often scrutinized for operating counter to European norms.
In 2021, the European Parliament asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to testify on issues of workers' rights and unions.
[72][74] Workers in multiple Amazon warehouses went on strike for better pay and working conditions during the company's June 2021 Prime Day.
[84] Amazon contractors of CEVA Logistics went on strike in Kocaeli, Turkey in June 2022 as part of the independent union DGD-Sen,[85] and again in August 2022.
[90] GPMU alleged that the company victimized or sacked four union members during the 2001 recognition drive and held a series of captive meetings with employees.
[94] In advance of a September 2019 tech industry walkout to protest inaction towards climate change, over 1,500 Amazon employees called for the company to commit to achieve zero emissions by 2030, among other asks.
In response, over 600 employees signed a letter calling on the company to bring forward its net zero pledge to 2030, and to prioritize deploying zero emissions technologies in communities most impacted by its pollution.
[107] In late-2020, Motherboard reported that Amazon monitored environmental and social justice groups, and that:"Internal emails sent to Amazon's Global Security Operations Center obtained by Motherboard reveal that all the division's team members around the world receive updates on labor organizing activities at warehouses that include the exact date, time, location, the source who reported the action, the number of participants at an event (and in some cases a turnout rate of those expected to participate in a labor action), and a description of what happened, such as a "strike" or "the distribution of leaflets."
[108]Amazon has also hired anti-union organizations to help stop unionization drives and private detective agencies such as Pinkerton to infiltrate its warehouses.
[114] Data collected in the heat map suggest that stores with low racial and ethnic diversity, especially those located in poor communities, are more likely to unionize.
