Posts tagged Amazon
Commentary: Unions, Free Speech and Political Demagogues
June 12, 2024 // The NLRB ruled that union strikers’ “profane, vulgar, racist, and otherwise insulting language” is protected union activity so long as the speech stops short of threatening violence. The message is clear: If you are a political ally of President Biden, you can have all the speech you want. If you represent a company or industry that Mr. Biden scapegoats for political gain, you can’t express your views in the public square without the government accusing you of breaking the law.
Teamsters Memo Signals Rift Between Major Unions
June 4, 2024 // In 2013, several years after the Teamsters left the AFL-CIO, the union tried to raid bargaining units at American Airlines and then-U.S. Airways, which later merged with American. The mechanics at U.S. Airways were represented by the IAM. At the time, the IAM accused the Teamsters of “dividing already unionized employees with hollow promises.” The Teamsters and the IAM later reached a peace. They even announced in 2022 that they would work together to organize a broad swath of workers at Delta alongside the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. The Teamsters were to represent the airline’s mechanics, the IAM Delta’s ramp and cargo workers, and the AFA Delta’s flight attendants.
The NLRB Harassment Carve-Out
May 30, 2024 // The NLRB may be fine with racism and sexism, but the Senate should oppose it. Ms. McFerran’s term expires in December, and regardless of what happens in November’s presidential election, Republicans and Democrats alike should demand a nominee who will stand against discrimination.
The Delivery Business Shows Why Unions Are Struggling to Expand
May 29, 2024 // But the union has also suffered losses. Yellow, a trucking company that employed 24,000 Teamsters, shut down and filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Amazon and FedEx said they were confident in their approach to managing and compensating workers. Amazon said it had made investments that bolstered pay and benefits at its delivery contractors. FedEx said its nonunion model allowed it to quickly increase pay whereas UPS’s union employees were bound by the terms of five-year contracts.
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.