The National Labor Relations Board has reportedly found that Amazon illegally retaliated against two activist workers by firing them last year.
The labor board came to this conclusion regarding the firing of Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa in April 2020, telling both workers that "it would accuse Amazon of unfair labor practices if the company did not settle the case," The New York Times reported on Monday.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Cunningham celebrated the labor board's reported finding as a "moral victory," telling the Times it "really shows that we are on the right side of history and the right side of the law." An Amazon spokesperson, meanwhile, said "we support every employee's right to criticize their employer's working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against our internal policies, all of which are lawful." The spokesperson added that the workers were fired "not for talking publicly about working conditions, safety or sustainability but, rather, for repeatedly violating internal policies."
They weren't the only Amazon workers to allege they had been retaliated against by the company, though, as according to the Times, dozens of Amazon workers have spoken to the National Labor Relations Board in the past year.
-
Scorching hot sauces that pack a punchThe Week Recommends The best sauces to tingle your lips and add a fiery kick to your food
-
Syria’s strange post-Assad electionThe Explainer Sunday’s limited vote ‘suited the phase Syria is undergoing’, says interim president
-
Why did the China spying case collapse?Today’s Big Question Unwillingness to call China an ‘enemy’ apparently scuppered espionage trial
-
US tipped to help Kyiv strike Russian energy sitesSpeed Read Trump has approved providing Ukraine with intelligence for missile strikes on Russian energy infrastructure
-
Netanyahu agrees to Trump’s new Gaza peace planSpeed Read At President Trump's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they agreed upon a plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of TaiwanIn the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Moldova gives decisive win to pro-EU partySpeed Read The country is now on track to join the European Union within five years
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdownIN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
UK, 3 Western allies recognize Palestinian stateSpeed Read Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal formally recognized the state of Palestine
-
Russia slams Kyiv, hits government buildingSpeed Read This was Moscow's largest aerial assault since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022
-
China's Xi hosts Modi, Putin, Kim in challenge to USSpeed Read Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Asian leaders at an SCO summit
