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- Amazon reached a settlement with the NLRB this week.
- It agreed to email current and past warehouse workers about their organizing rights.
- Amazon continues to face union challenges in some warehouses.
Amazon has to email all current and former warehouse workers information about their rights as part of a new agreement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) The New York Times reported.
The emails are one stipulation in a settlement between Amazon and the government organization that would make it easier for warehouse workers to organize. They will go out to approximately 1 million workers.
The retail giant has been involved in several labor fights recently. There have been more than 75 charges brought to the NLRB accusing Amazon of unfair labor practices since the onset of the pandemic, per the NLRB database. Last month, the agency ordered a union election at an Alabama warehouse be re-held after Amazon’s illegal interference made a “free and fair election impossible.”
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) just filed a petition on Wednesday to hold an election at Amazon’s Staten Island JFK8 warehouse. The group’s petition had 2,500 signatures from the more than 5,000 workers at the warehouse, organizers said.
Worker demands include a return of pandemic policies.
“In light of the increasing severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Omicron variant, we are demanding the return of hazard pay and unlimited unpaid time off,” The ALU’s letter to the site leader read. Amazon previously instituted a $2 per hour pay increase at the beginning of the pandemic, which it eliminated in June 2020. The unlimited time off policy ended in April 2020.
“Our focus remains on listening directly to our employees and continuously improving on their behalf,” an Amazon spokesperson previously told Insider. Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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