NLRB says Amazon CEO violated labor laws over comments about union campaigns
The government agency complaint points to two interviews
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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has accused Amazon CEO Andy Jassy of committing labor law violations over comments he made earlier in the year about union campaigns.
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In a complaint dated Tuesday, a regional NLRB director alleged Jassy violated the National Labor Relations Act, pointing to two separate interviews — one in April and one in June — with CNBC and Bloomberg.
The document also requires Amazon to respond to it by Nov. 8 and provides notice of a Feb. 7 hearing on the matter.
Jassy, in a April 14 "Squawk Box" interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, acknowledged workers’ rights to choose whether to join a union but offered several reasons why he thought "they’re better off not doing so," according to a transcript.
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"At a place like Amazon that empowers employees, if they see something they can do better for customers or for themselves, they can go meet in a room, decide how to change it and change it," he said. "That type of empowerment doesn’t happen when you have unions. It’s much more bureaucratic, it’s much slower. I also think people are better off having direct connections with their managers."
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During the Bloomberg interview in June, Jassy said Amazon workers get to decide about joining a union but "we happen to think they’re better off without" one. He also reportedly argued that, under the current system, getting employee feedback and making changes quickly was easier, similar to his earlier comments.
This picture taken July 4, 2022, shows the logo of Amazon at Amazon's Amagasaki Fulfillment Center in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Amazon workers line up outside the company's facility in Staten Island, New York, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted / AP Newsroom)
The NLRB alleged that by giving the remarks, Jassy has "been interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in § 7 of the Act in violation of § 8(a)(1) of the Act."
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told FOX Business the allegations are "completely without merit" and that the comments are "clearly protected by express language of the National Labor Relations Act and decades of NLRB precedent."
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"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’ rights to organize and in no way contained threats of reprisal," Nantel continued.
There have been four union elections at Amazon warehouses this year.
