Amazon Hit With Labor Complaint Over CEO’s Comments on Unions

    Amazon’s CEO may have infringed on workers’ rights with his comments, according to a federal official’s complaint.
    Sarah Tew/CNET
    

    The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Amazon for comments made by its CEO, Andy Jassy, in interviews conducted earlier this year, CNBC reported Thursday. Jassy violated national labor law when he suggested that employees were better off without unions, according to the complaint filed by the NLRB’s regional office in Seattle. Amazon denies that the comments crossed a legal line.
    The comments in question included Jassy telling Bloomberg in June that Amazon happens “to think they’re better off without a union,” referring to employees deciding whether to unionize. He said unions hamper direct relationships with managers and teams’ ability to adapt and improve, according to Bloomberg.
    Comments like these had the effect of “interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed,” the NLRB claimed in its complaint, according to CNBC.
    “These allegations are completely without merit, and the comments in question are clearly protected by express language of the National Labor Relations Act and decades of NLRB precedent,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The comments lawfully explain Amazon’s views on unionization and the way it could affect the ability of our employees to deal directly with their managers, and they began with a clear recognition of our employees’ right to organize and in no way contained threats of reprisal.”
    The National Labor Relations Board didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
    Amazon’s labor practices have come under scrutiny, and the company has seen a spate of unionization attempts in recent months. One study showed Amazon had a rate of serious injury among its warehouse workers that was twice the rate of other warehouses, which Amazon pinned on an increase in new hires to meet demand in the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also had its first warehouse vote in favor of unionization in Staten Island, New York, earlier this year. The Amazon Labor Union lost two later elections in New York.