Posts tagged Amazon
Labor Board Goes After Amazon CEO for Suggesting Workers Might Be ‘Better Off’ Without Unions
May 14, 2024 // "Reasonable people may disagree about the line between permissible and impermissible speech" within the bounds of federal labor laws, said Edwin Egee, a vice president at the National Retail Federation, in a statement. "However, if Judge Gee's decision is left to stand, the effect would be to erase this line entirely. Employers would rightly wonder whether they can speak about unionization at all, despite their legally protected right to do so." Gee's ruling in the Amazon case sits awkwardly alongside other recent rulings by the NLRB that gave wide leeway to employees' speech about similar topics. As the Washington Examiner noted, the NLRB in January forced Amazon to rehire an employee who had been sacked after directing an expletive-laden tirade at a fellow worker.
The Biden administration wants free speech for Big Labor, not businesses
May 9, 2024 // What’s more offensive — and, for that matter, illegal? An employee calling a coworker a “gutter b****” and a “queen of the slums”? Or a CEO saying that bringing in a labor union will make the workplace “much slower” and “more bureaucratic”? The answer is clearly the employee who racially and sexually demeaned his coworker. Yet in President Joe Biden’s administration, the CEO is the one getting punished. On May 1, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated federal labor law when he said that unionization comes with downsides.
Commentary: Biden sacrifices workplace free speech to satisfy labor unions
May 8, 2024 // This attack on workplace speech is part and parcel of Mr. Biden’s ultimate goal — legalizing union harassment of workers. Mr. Biden reiterated his support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act in his State of the Union address, legislation that would rewrite U.S. labor law to the unions’ benefit. One little-known PRO Act provision would force employers to hand over sensitive employee contact information — including phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses and shift times — to union bosses during organizing drives. If the act became legal, workers on the fence about unionization could get a 3 a.m. knock on the door from organizers attempting to “help” them make up their minds. Mr. Biden’s devotion to labor unions has come at a significant cost — the chilling of workplace speech. If Democrats are serious about being pro-worker, they should stand up and oppose Mr. Biden’s anti-speech crusade. But as long as labor unions continue to spend billions to elect Democrats, don’t hold your breath.
NLRB Judge Rules Against Amazon CEO’s Comments
May 3, 2024 // The problem with the ALJ’s mind-bendingly distorted reasoning is type of speech Jassy used is specifically protected by the NLRA, which states: “The expressing of any views, argument, or opinion, or the dissemination thereof, whether in written, printed, graphic, or visual form, shall not constitute or be evidence of an unfair labor practice under any of the provisions of this Act, if such expression contains no threat of reprisal or force or promise of benefit.” And Jassy’s statements did not include threats of reprisal or force or promise of benefit. Moreover, try as the NLRB might to make their legal gymnastics seem legitimate, there’s also the matter of the First Amendment. What’s really going on here is that the NLRB’s General Counsel and the ALJ simply don’t like that Amazon’s CEO offered his opinion about unionizing, which is his right whether they like it or not.
Amazon CEO’s Comments Violated Labor Law, NLRB Judge Rules
May 2, 2024 // Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy made comments to the media in 2022 that violated federal labor law, a US National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Wednesday. Remarks that Jassy made to reporters about the downsides of unionization told “employees that, if they selected a union, they would become less empowered and would find it harder to get things done quickly,” NLRB administrative law judge Brian Gee wrote. Gee cited various comments Jassy made, including telling CNBC that making workplace improvements is “much slower” with a union and saying at a New York Times conference that employees without a union are “better off” because “it’s not bureaucratic.”
The “Troublemakers” of the Labor Movement Gather in Chicago
April 26, 2024 // To learn about strategies to combat union busting, Johnston attended a workshop on “inoculation,” or how to prepare coworkers for fear tactics from the boss. It gave him an idea—a bingo card with common anti-union talking points he could hand out for coworkers to fill out during captive-audience meetings, mandatory meetings managers can hold with workers to convey anti-union messages.
Unions are getting bolder in targeting Big Business
April 19, 2024 // The UAW on Thursday secured a federally sanctioned unionization vote for workers at the 6,100-person Mercedes-Benz factory in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Pharmacists at multiple CVS stores are moving to join a new union as part of a growing backlash to what they say are unsafe work conditions, Axios' Maya Goldman reports. The Actors' Equity Association is seeking a vote to organize the 1,700 live performers at Disneyland after more than two-thirds signed union authorization cards.
Two years after its historic win, a divided Amazon Labor Union lurches toward a leadership election
April 9, 2024 // Smalls, a former Amazon worker who co-founded the union during the coronavirus pandemic, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. Last year, he told the New York Times that he traveled to help raise money for the union. He also told financial news website Business Insider in December that he would not seek reelection as ALU president. Meanwhile, two other prominent organizers, Connor Spence, the union’s co-founder and former treasurer, and Michelle Valentin Nieves, a union leader who says she was pushed out of the group last year, have thrown their hats in the ring. Amazon fired Spence last year for violating a company policy that forbids workers from accessing company buildings or outdoor work areas when they’re off the clock, a policy critics say is designed to hinder organizing. He's leading the A.L.U. Democratic Reform Caucus, while Valentin Nieves is running her own independent campaign.
Liz Shuler Wants AI to Reinvigorate the Labor Movement
April 2, 2024 // Fast forward a few years, and the world has evolved. Shuler is now the president of the AFL-CIO, having moved into the top spot in the summer of 2021, following the death of the organization’s longtime leader, Richard Trumka. Thanks to artificial intelligence, anxiety about technology’s impact on job security has only increased — not only among kitchen workers, but also white-collar professionals who long saw themselves as immune from disruption: writers, lawyers, health care professionals, marketers, financial analysts.
Opinion | Unmasking Big Labor’s ‘Salts’
March 26, 2024 // Big Labor says these legal protections are the only way the masses can compete with corporate power. The masses don’t seem to agree. The Institute for the American Worker conducted a recent poll on labor fairness, and three-quarters of respondents said unions should have to disclose their paid influencers. The labor-law standard since Taft-Hartley has been freely and transparently negotiated employment contracts. President Biden hasn’t hidden his goal to boost unions by any means available. Lawmakers who want to maintain a fair labor landscape will have to defend it on several fronts.