John Logan, an expert on unions based at San Francisco State University said that “The penalties for violating the [NLRA] are meaningless. For Amazon, it’s the cost of doing business. You can make a case that Amazon falls into the category of the worst offenders, a poster child for labor law violations.”
Anti-union Tactics
The Amazon JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island is currently a place of controversy. A major pro-union drive started there in late May. And this occurred just after the Bessemer vote.
Staten Island Amazon worker Connor Spence has filed multiple complaints. He claims he was handing out union leaflets in the break room on May 16. An Amazon security guard wouldn’t allow him to continue. And said he didn’t have permission to pass out fliers.
“He took the union literature away and wouldn’t give it back,” Spence alleges.
Spence also claims that the local union organizers were holding barbecues for workers near the warehouse. Then at a May 24th get-together a security guard began photographing the people at the barbecue. And the workers felt that management was surveilling union activity.
