The workers, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, organized workers around climate action and warehouse conditions during the pandemic for their April 2020 layoffs.
The federal agency said it would file a complaint if the matter was not resolved, according to The New York Times, which first reported the news Monday. NLRB confirmed the finding to CNN Business.
Cunningham told CNN Business Monday she “couldn’t be more pleased with today’s news.”
“It’s a moral victory and it feels incredible to be not only on the right side of history, but also on the right side of the law,” she said. “Amazon tried to silence employees, but it didn’t work out. We’re actually stronger than ever. The organization continues to grow at Amazon.”
Meanwhile, AmazonAMZN seemed to defend the termination of workers. Amazon spokesman Jaci Anderson told The Times it “terminated these workers not because they publicly talked about working conditions, safety or sustainability, but rather because they repeatedly violated internal policies.”
“We support the right of any employee to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that is not accompanied by blanket immunity from our internal policies, all of which are legal,” said Anderson.
Amazon and Costa did not immediately respond to CNN Business’s requests for comment.
The news comes at a time when the company is openly hostile to critics of the working conditions, particularly the working conditions of the warehouse workers. A union election at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, has once again shed bright light on the realities of working for Amazon, drawing national attention from prominent figures including President Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams. The vote – a count of which began Tuesday – will determine whether the workers will form the first US union in Amazon’s nearly 27-year history.
Cunningham and Costa, both user experience designers, are founders of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group of corporate employees originally formed to advocate for climate issues. The group continues speak out on issues towards his employer, including providing support to the workers who wish to unite.
Cunningham and Costa’s claim is the latest retaliation from Amazon employees that the federal agency has earned its credit for. In November, NLRB filed a complaint against Amazon for the illegal termination of oneWarehouse worker in Pennsylvania. According to an analysis of NLRB data by NBC News, at least 37 reprisals have been filed against Amazon against Amazon in 20 cities since February 2020. While the pandemic has been a boon to Amazon’s business, security measures related to the virus, as well as general working conditions, have also been a factor behind a more widespread worker revolt in the facilities. NBC News reported that NLRB is considering whether to consolidate the allegations given the number of similar complaints.
At the time, the resignation of Cunningham and Costa led to the resignation of Amazon engineer and vice president Tim Bray. In a lengthy blog post about his departure, Bray said he had “resigned from Amazon firing whistleblowers who made noise about warehouse workers who feared Covid-19.”
“The firing of whistleblowers is not only a side effect of macroeconomic forces, nor is it intrinsic to the function of free markets. It is evidence of a vein of toxicity running through corporate culture,” Bray wrote. “I choose not to serve or drink that poison.”
