News & Commentary February 1, 2023
By Sarah Leadem
Sarah Leadem is a joint degree candidate at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
In todays News and Commentary, an administrative law judge rules that Amazon violated labor law and HuffPost workers announce readiness to strike.
An administrative law judge ruled yesterday that Amazon violated labor law in the build-up to union elections at JFK8. Workers at JFK8 Amazon Fulfillment Center in Staten Island voted to join the Amazon Labor Union last April, making it the first union at Amazon. Despite challenges from Amazon against the election results, the NLRB upheld the election as valid earlier this month.
Yesterday, administrative law judge Benjamin W. Green ruled on allegations that Amazon violated labor laws ahead of the election and ruled in favor of the union on two counts. The judge dismissed several other charges. First, Judge Green found that Amazon supervisors illegally threatened to withhold pay and benefit increases to workers if they voted to unionize. Second, Amazon illegally removed a pro-union post on an internal digital messaging board. The judge dismissed several other charges, including allegations that Amazon suggested to employees that pay and other employer-provided benefits would not carry on if workers unionized. Find Judge Greens decision here. Amazon can appeal the decision to the NLRB.
FULL story:
https://onlabor.org/february-1-2023/