Workers Say Amazon Is Punishing Them for Observing Union Vote

Amazon’s ALB1 warehouse near Albany, New York, began its union election process on Wednesday. In a total of eight polling sessions through next Monday, workers will have the chance to vote on whether ALB1 will join the Amazon Labor Union and become the second Amazon warehouse to unionize.

But lawyers for the ALU say that Amazon has been retaliating against workers by saying if they serve as election observers—active representatives of the union there to ensure the voting goes smoothly—they would not be paid for their time, and their Unpaid Time Off (UPT) will be deducted. 

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Retu Singla, general counsel for the ALU, said in a series of emails to the National Labor Relations Board that that was a clear violation of worker rights, and that Amazon was disregarding its agreement with the union to release observers during polling times. 

“It’s specifically in the election agreement with Amazon that no one’s supposed to be penalized for that time if they are an election observer,” Seth Goldstein, a lawyer for the ALU, said in a phone call with Motherboard. “So now we don’t have an election observer, which of course makes it look like the union is weak and can’t protect people’s rights. Amazon’s running the election.”

In a phone call with Motherboard, a spokesperson for Amazon said that the communication with workers had been a complete misunderstanding. They said the company would not deduct UPT from any election observers, and that they had fixed the issue. They also said that in the election agreement, there was no language specific to unpaid time.

“The only mistake that Amazon made was violating federal labor law,” Goldstein said. 

Of the three polling sessions held as of Thursday evening, two had designated workers who were on shift at the time as observers. Both of these workers, Singla wrote in an email to the NLRB which was shared with Motherboard, were told that their UPT would be deducted, and had subsequently backed out of the role due to fear of retaliation. Motherboard has taken out the names of the workers at the request of the ALU.

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“[One worker] continues to be uncomfortable and afraid of retaliation for acting as a Union Observer,” Singla wrote. “Clearly, the employer has acted to successfully chill [the worker’s] Section 7 rights to participate in this representation election which is [their] right under the NLRA.” 

Singla wrote that the worker had been contacted at home by a member of ALB1’s internal Human Resources department. “Jessica Kuete from ALB1’s internal Human Resources Office called our observer by phone late last night (when she was not on shift or working) to discuss [their] “voluntary”’ participation in the ALB1 election as an observer for the Union and telling [them] that [they] would have [their] UPT deducted, would lose [their] “Learning Ambassador” status and would not be paid if [they] chose to observe for the ALU in the representation election this morning,” the email reads. 

“Moreover, [a second worker] contacted me very upset about the prospect that [their] UPT balance will be deducted for [their] participation in the election yesterday morning as a Union observer,” Singla’s email continued. “And now [they are] refusing to act as an observer for any further polling sessions. Essentially, Amazon is being permitted to violate the NLRA with impunity in the first 3 polling sessions in this representation election.” 

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A spokesperson for the NLRB said the organization’s Buffalo branch had not received any unfair labor practice charges relating to these events. 

Amazon is generally very strict with giving time off to its employees, paid or not. Motherboard has previously reported on workers who used up their time off because their five-hour-long commute across the U.S.-Mexico border made them late to work. Those workers would be fired after that time off was gone, with largely no compassion or adjustments from the company. Just last week, night shift workers at JFK8, Amazon’s Staten Island facility, held the first sit-in wildcat strike in the company’s history after a fire broke out in the building and management refused to send them home with time off.

“UPT time is very precious to the workers,” Singla said in a phone call. “It’s just making it harder and harder to get participants to act as observers when the employer’s telling them they’re going to lose out.” 

Singla said that Amazon has not interfered with the workers who go to polling events to vote, and that the sessions thus far have had good turnout. “They are not against getting out the vote,” she said. “They don’t go about this by treating workers poorly for voting. They go about this by treating workers poorly for actively engaging in support for the union. When you act as an observer, you’re literally an agent for the union.”

Goldstein said that Amazon was “making a mockery” of the union election process. “Action has to be taken immediately by the Board,” he continued. “How can we have this type of mockery of American democracy?”

Management at ALB1 has long been trying to disrupt the union organization process. Motherboard reported that the company hired third-party union-busting consultants to interact with employees around the warehouse. Many said they felt harassed and intimidated by them, but the union drive has so far been successful in gaining support. The results of the election will be known next Tuesday.

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