In a surprise settlement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in December, Amazon agreed to let its warehouse employees more easily organize in the workplace.
Under the settlement, Amazon said it would email past and current warehouse workers — likely more than one million people — with notifications of their rights and give them greater flexibility to organize in its buildings. Amazon also agreed to change a policy that limited employee access to its facilities and notified employees that it had done so, as well as inform them of other labor rights. The agreement also makes it easier and faster for the NLRB, which investigates claims of unfair labor practices, to sue Amazon if it believes the company violated the terms and lets the NLRB bypass an administrative hearing process, a lengthy and cumbersome undertaking if the agency found that the company had not abided by the settlement.
This year, Amazon has grappled with organizing efforts at warehouses in Alabama and New York. Workers at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama are going to get a second shot at unionizing, after the NLRB called for a revote upon finding that the e-commerce giant improperly interfered in the first election.
Compounding the problem, Amazon is struggling to find enough employees to satiate its growth. The company was built on a model of high-turnover employment, which has now crashed into a phenomenon known as the Great Resignation, with workers in many industries quitting their jobs in search of a better deal for themselves.
“This settlement agreement provides a crucial commitment from Amazon to millions of its workers across the United States that it will not interfere with their right to act collectively to improve their workplace by forming a union or taking other collective action,” said NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo in a statement.
By Karen Weise, New York Times