A body of workers at an Amazon air freight hub in San Bernardino that has been pushing for a $5-per-hour pay enhance and extra strong security measures accused the e-commerce large of unfair labor practices in a Thursday submitting with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board.
The group, which calls itself Inland Empire Amazon Employees United, alleged the corporate threatened an worker and in the end terminated him in retaliation for actions together with signing a petition for a wage enhance, soliciting co-worker signatures, distributing literature, sporting a sticker in help of the wage enhance and taking part in a walkout, in accordance with a duplicate of the submitting reviewed by The Occasions.
Inland Empire Amazon Employees United additionally alleged within the submitting that Amazon had interrogated staff about their union-related actions, issued write-ups to different staff in retaliation for sporting stickers in help of the wage enhance and surveilled employees engaged in organizing.
Dozens of Amazon employees on the air freight hub walked off the job noon Friday to protest what they described in a press release as a “shameful” response by the corporate to their ongoing push for increased pay. In interviews, employees mentioned the e-commerce large has introduced in anti-union labor consultants to their facility in latest months, contributing to a notion amongst employees that they’re being watched and will face retaliation for talking out to enhance office circumstances.
NLRB spokesperson Matt Hayward confirmed Friday the board’s Area 31 workplace obtained the allegations associated to Amazon’s KSBD facility and is processing the submitting.
Amazon disputes the allegations.
“We disagree with these claims,” Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis mentioned in an e-mail. “We don’t retaliate towards staff for exercising their federally protected rights.”
Inland Empire Amazon Employees United didn’t specify what number of employees are formally concerned within the unfair labor follow allegations however mentioned the claims have been drawn from the experiences of at the very least a handful of employees.
On the protest Friday afternoon, employees, neighborhood activists, environmentalists and Teamsters union members supporting the trouble crowded exterior the San Bernardino success middle often called KSBD carrying crimson indicators emblazoned with the message “Prime buyers beware: Amazon air is unfair.”
Organizers of the walkout estimated that about 100 employees participated and mentioned they anticipated that quantity to extend as some staff on the night time shift Friday additionally deliberate to stroll out.
Javier Martinez, an Amazon employee who participated within the Friday protest, mentioned the corporate was scanning the badges of employees who have been getting into and exiting the ability across the time of the deliberate walkout. He mentioned this was not a standard follow at this facility. Martinez mentioned sometimes Amazon merely has safety workers look at employees’ badges on the door after they enter for his or her shift.
Martinez, 21, believes the corporate is in search of to gather names of employees who participated within the protest.
Retaliation is “an actual concern,” Martinez mentioned, particularly for his co-workers who’ve households to help.
Rex Evans, who works outdoor loading and unloading cargo from plane, marched with co-workers close to the worker entrance, waving a flier titled “Warning!” with a warning about an anti-union labor guide he mentioned has been a near-constant presence on the KSBD facility in latest weeks.
Evans and different employees started discussing in early September considerations that Amazon had dispatched anti-union consultants, together with a lady named Miriam Navarro, who has launched herself to employees as a consultant of the corporate’s worker relations division.
Navarro’s LinkedIn profile describes her as a bilingual skilled “with an intensive report of efficiently facilitating communication and resolving work power points as a labor/worker relations guide.” Navarro seems to be listed as “M Navarro” in publicly accessible disclosures with the U.S. Division of Labor of consultants who’ve labored with Amazon. Navarro didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Two employees informed The Occasions that in latest months as they’ve grow to be extra engaged within the push for increased pay they’ve been interrogated by supervisors and are extra steadily despatched to do jobs in several departments as an alternative of their typical assignments, which they consider is a tactic by the corporate to isolate them from co-workers.
Sara Payment, who works in an space of KSBD referred to as the “outbound dock,” mentioned {that a} supervisor interrogated her and explicitly warned her the corporate was watching her. Payment additionally mentioned Navarro, the labor guide, has adopted her round carefully at work and appears to trace after which strategy co-workers to whom Payment has talked all through the day.
Anna Ortega mentioned on Thursday a supervisor despatched her to retrieve a field of masks on the opposite facet of the constructing. On her method there, Ortega mentioned, she was approached by one other supervisor who requested her what number of employees have been planning to stroll out on the protest deliberate the subsequent day.
“They wait till I’m alone after which they arrive as much as me and ask questions,” Ortega mentioned. “Seeing how that performed out, I used to be suspicious, as a result of I used to be in a gaggle of individuals after which I used to be despatched away.”
Amazon didn’t reply to questions on Payment’s accusations. The corporate didn’t instantly reply to questions on supervisors’ questioning of Ortega.
Amazon warehouse employees and members of Teamsters Union protest collectively at Amazon Air Hub on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022 in San Bernardino, CA.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Occasions)
Paradis, the Amazon spokesperson, described the corporate’s communications with staff about union actions as peculiar for the circumstances.
“Holding conferences about unions with staff is a course of that’s been legally acknowledged for greater than 70 years,” Paradis mentioned in an e-mail. “Like many different firms, we maintain these conferences as a result of it’s vital that everybody understands the info about becoming a member of a union.”
Amazon didn’t reply detailed questions on its use of labor consultants at KSBD.
A employee main a union drive backed by the upstart Amazon Labor Union at one other Amazon facility, ONT8, in close by Moreno Valley, mentioned earlier this week that she and different employees have been required to attend anti-union conferences and have been falsely informed that their advantages would disappear in the event that they unionized.
These conferences, often called “captive viewers” conferences, are authorized below labor board precedent. However earlier this 12 months the board’s normal counsel issued a memo saying that the precedent didn’t align with underlying federal legislation, and mentioned she deliberate to problem it.
The accounts by Amazon employees within the Southern California amenities are harking back to different fees lobbed on the e-commerce large earlier this 12 months.
The Amazon Labor Union, which led employees at JFK8, a Staten Island warehouse, to a watershed victory in April, additionally criticized Amazon for requiring employees on the facility to attend anti-union conferences and accused the corporate of threatening to withhold advantages from staff in the event that they voted to unionize.
ALU alleged Amazon had inaccurately indicated to staff that they may very well be fired if the warehouse have been to unionize and so they did not pay union dues. The NLRB discovered advantage to some accusations leveled by the union. Amazon objected to the union win at JFK8, and the end result continues to be being litigated by an appeals course of.