Amazon faces formal Labor Board complaint over worker firing

The National Labor Relations Board is preparing to issue a complaint against Amazon alleging that the company illegally fired an employee at a New York warehouse until the company first settled the case. Did. , The issue is whether Deacon Smith, an organizer of the newly formed Amazon Labor Union (ALU), was fired for trying to organize.

As first reported by Bloomberg, NLRB spokeswoman Kayla Bladow confirmed Friday that the agency's regional director, Kathy Drew King, has determined allegations by the ALU that Smith was unlawfully fired and if If the matter is not resolved then the complaint will be issued. "The complaint will allege leave due to union and other protected concerted activities," Bladow said.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.

The ALU awaits a hearing on its petition to hold union elections at four of Amazon's warehouses in Staten Island. Smith was an employee at one of the Staten Island warehouses, and the ALU tweeted Friday that Smith has been left homeless since his firing. The NLRB reserves the right to reinstate employees fired for the programme, but it is not yet clear whether it will do so in this case.

Following the company's intervention in the first election of April 2021, the NLRB ordered Amazon to re-conduct a union election at its warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. That again, which will be done by mail and supervised by the NLRB, will start from February 4.