Amazon violated labor laws before a union election last year at two warehouses on Staten Island, a federal administrative judge has ruled.
The judge, who hears cases for the National Labor Relations Board, ruled Monday that Amazon supervisors illegally threatened to withhold wages and benefit increases. from employees at warehouses if they vote to form a union. The judge, Benjamin W. Green, also ruled that Amazon unlawfully deleted an employee’s digital message board posts inviting colleagues to sign a petition circulated by the Amazon Labor Union. The union sought to represent workers in both warehouses.
The ruling ordered Amazon to stop unfair labor practices and post a notice saying it would not engage in such practices.
In the same ruling, the judge dismissed a number of allegations made by labor council prosecutors in the complaint, including allegations that Amazon indicated that take-home wages would fall if workers unite; that Amazon has promised to improve its education expense subsidy program for workers if they choose not to join a union; and Amazon point out that workers will be fired if they join a union and don’t pay union dues.
The judge found that these accusations were either exaggerated or, in the last case, not illegal.
Amazon can appeal the ruling to a labor council in Washington.
Mary Kate Paradis, an Amazon spokeswoman, said in a statement: “We are pleased that the judge dismissed 19 – nearly all – of the charges in this case. hard to do the right thing.”
The union declined to comment.
The breaches occurred at a large Amazon warehouse called JFK8, where workers voted to merge in an election whose results were announced in April, and at a smaller warehouse nearby called LDJ5, where workers vote against a union the next month.
In the weeks leading up to the election, Amazon convened employees at its warehouses to dozens of anti-union meetings where supervisors questioned the credibility of the Amazon Labor Union, highlighted the cost of union dues and warned that workers could get worse under its rule. a union.
The judge’s ruling dismissed a broader question raised by labor commission prosecutors: whether employers can force workers to attend such meetings.
Meetings are legal under labor council precedent and common among employers facing union campaigns. But the council’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, argued that the precedent was in conflict with federal labor law and sought to challenge it.
Judge Green concluded that he did not have the authority to reverse the precedent. “I am forced to apply the existing law,” he wrote. Abruzzo’s office could file an appeal asking the labor commission in Washington to overturn the precedent.
