Thread by @NBCNews

Fired, interrogated, disciplined: Amazon warehouse organizers allege year of retaliation.

The number of charges filed with the NLRB accusing Amazon of interfering with workers’ right to organize more than tripled during pandemic.

nbcnews.to/3fme1qa

(1/8) #NBCNewsThreads

At least 37 charges against Amazon were filed to the NLRB across 20 cities since Feb. 2020, according to an analysis of NLRB filings by @NBCNews.

For comparison, Walmart, America’s largest employer, has had 8 such charges since Feb. 2020. (2/8)

Typically NLRB charges are investigated by one of 26 regional offices.

But in rare instances the board combines cases into a consolidated complaint, as it has done with Walmart and McDonald’s, if it believes there is a pattern emerging at a company. (3/8)

Labor experts say the surge in such charges reflects a dramatic increase in organizing among a small but vocal portion of Amazon’s 500,000 warehouse workers across North America during a boom in online retail, leading to record sales and an almost 200% increase in profits. (4/8)

Workers have been coming together to demand better working conditions — including through solidarity campaigns, strikes, protests and walkouts — at warehouses across the United States, including in Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, Iowa City, Sacramento. (5/8)

"Amazon will work to destroy your character and try to keep you from talking about what’s actually going on,” says Jonathan Bailey, who co-founded a network of Amazon workers fighting for better working conditions.

“And it’s all so that Jeff Bezos can make more dollars.” (6/8)

“Workers getting paid $15/hour are going up against one of the world’s most powerful corporations owned by the world’s richest man,” says John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. (7/8)

.@NBCNews interviewed more than two dozen Amazon warehouse workers, 9 of whom said they had been fired, disciplined or retaliated against for protected activity and 3 of whom filed NLRB complaints since the pandemic began.

Full story: nbcnews.to/3tZnxDI

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