"If we want to have a sustainable future with a habitable earth, then it’s going to take an international movement." “Amazon and most big companies that control our lives are international,” said a worker at a delivery station in New York City who asked to stay anonymous out of concern the firm might retaliate against him. By coordinating demands for wage increases, additional breaks or new safety measures internationally, it wants to force the company into changes for the warehouse workers on whom it depends to deliver the goods. That's where AWI aims to make a difference. Bezos personally made over $87 billion this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Meanwhile, the company doubled its year-on-year profits in the second quarter to $5.2 billion and went on a hiring spree to keep up with demand for shopping extravaganzas such as Prime Day (a chance to grab products at lower prices), Black Friday and Christmas. ![]() When workers went on strike in France in May, the company temporarily shut down its warehouses in the whole country, re-routing orders via Italy. technology sector and has, as a rule, declined to recognize or actively engage with trade unions.Įven during a pandemic that forced thousands of warehouse workers to brave the risk of infection, inflaming tensions with management at several sites, Amazon hasn't changed its basic stance toward labor groups, arguing that its hourly rates are at the top end of what the industry offers. With more than 175 warehouses, or "fulfillment centers," dotted around the world, hyper-optimized management methods and a market capitalization close to $1 trillion, the company epitomizes the might of the U.S. ![]() The network's online-first approach - and the emphasis on international coordination - underscores a lesson that these workers have absorbed over the last decade: They have little chance of winning concessions from management if they pitch demands locally, via traditional union methods.Īmazon is just too big, too agile and too powerful. Other workers from Poland, Germany and the United States had also joined the call, AWI's annual gathering, to discuss Amazon's response to the pandemic and upcoming actions. ![]() “This relief is critical to ensure that Amazon employees can fully and freely exercise their rights to join together and improve their working conditions, including by forming, assisting, or joining a union.”įield Attorneys Matthew Jackson and Evamaria Cox of the NLRB’s Region 29 represented Regional Director Poor in the Section 10(j) proceedings before Judge Gujarati."Can you hear me?" Polish warehouse worker Agnieszka Mróz said late last month as she connected from her hometown of Poznań with French and Italian colleagues gathered a thousand kilometers away, at the office of French union Sud Solidaires in an old railway factory in Lille, northern France. “The Judge’s order in this case recognizes Amazon’s unlawful conduct and provides the full force of a federal court injunction to prohibit Amazon from further discharging employees for engaging in protected concerted activity,” said Region 29 Brooklyn Director Teresa Poor. If Amazon violates the cease-and-desist order, it could be held in contempt by the court. While the injunction does not order interim reinstatement of the employee at this time, it does order Amazon to cease and desist from further discharging any employees for protected activities under the NLRA, or in any like or related manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed to them by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. The petition alleged that Amazon unlawfully fired an employee at JFK8 for advocating, with his co-workers, for workplace health and safety protections in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and by protesting with his co-workers Amazon’s failure to provide greater safety protections to employees. Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) authorizes the NLRB to seek injunctions against employers and unions in federal district courts to ensure that employees' rights will be adequately protected from remedial failure due to the passage of time. The injunction was issued based on a petition for Section 10(j) injunctive relief filed by Kathy Drew King, former Regional Director of Region 29 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The injunction also directs Amazon to post, distribute, and read the Court’s order to employees at the Employer’s Staten Island facility (“JFK8”). ![]() Staten Island, New York – On November 18, 2022, Judge Diane Gujarati of the United States District Court for the District of Eastern New York issued a Section 10(j) injunction against Services LLC directing Amazon to cease and desist from discharging employees, and from engaging in any like or related conduct, in retaliation for employees engaging in protected activities.
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