Greater than a yr and a half after Amazon employees on Staten Island voted to kind the corporate’s first union in the USA, the corporate seems to be taking a tougher line towards labor organizing, disciplining employees and even firing one who had been closely concerned within the union marketing campaign.

The disciplinary actions come at a time when union organizers look like gaining floor at a significant air hub operated by Amazon in Kentucky, the place they are saying they’ve collected union authorization playing cards from at the very least one-quarter of hourly workers. Staff should sometimes reveal at the very least 30 p.c assist to immediate a union election.

In disciplining the staff, Amazon has raised questions in regards to the extent to which they’re free to strategy co-workers to influence them to affix a union, a federally protected proper. The overall counsel of the Nationwide Labor Relations Board has stated Amazon is breaking the regulation by way of a coverage governing the entry that off-duty employees must its services, which Amazon invoked within the latest firing. The board is looking for to overturn the coverage at an upcoming trial.

Lisa Levandowski, an Amazon spokeswoman, stated the latest disciplinary actions have been strictly a response to rule violations, to not union organizing. “Workers have the selection of whether or not or to not be a part of a union,” she stated.

The corporate’s off-duty entry rule is “a lawful, common sense coverage,” she stated, “and we stay up for defending our place.”

The fired employee, Connor Spence, was a founding father of the Amazon Labor Union, which gained final yr’s election on Staten Island. After a break up throughout the union management, Mr. Spence helped begin a separate group that sought to strain the corporate to barter a contract on the warehouse, often known as JFK8.

The corporate has but to start bargaining with JFK8 employees and is interesting final yr’s union victory.

In October, Mr. Spence’s group led a walkout of some dozen workers to push for larger pay and an finish to what it says is discrimination towards pregnant employees, whom it says Amazon refuses to accommodate with much less strenuous duties.

Mr. Spence was suspended just a few weeks later for violating the corporate’s off-duty entry coverage, which forbids employees from being inside Amazon buildings or in outside work areas once they’re not working.

Mr. Spence stated that he was on web site whereas off the clock to construct assist for the October walkout and to plan a future walkout, and that these organizing efforts have been protected by federal labor regulation. He filed a cost with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board accusing the corporate of unfair labor practices.

On Nov. 29, whereas nonetheless serving his suspension, Mr. Spence was fired for the violations of the coverage in October, in keeping with a doc the corporate gave him.

Mr. Spence has additionally been concerned within the organizing effort on the Kentucky air hub, the corporate’s largest air facility within the nation, and his firing got here shortly after he had visited the location to assist construct assist for a union.

Ms. Levandowski stated that Mr. Spence had been fired “after a number of, documented warnings and violations” of firm coverage and that the termination “has nothing to do with whether or not Mr. Spence helps a specific trigger or group.”

She stated the corporate’s lodging coverage for pregnant employees “meets or exceeds state and federal legal guidelines.” Lodging can embrace gentle responsibility roles corresponding to field constructing.

Different employees concerned in union organizing on the air hub say Amazon has focused them with disciplinary motion in latest weeks.

For a number of months, employees on the hub have arrange a number of tables close to one in every of two entrances, from which organizers distributed union materials and details about working circumstances. Three air hub employees who typically are inclined to the tables stated supervisors largely left them undisturbed throughout this time.

However on Nov. 7, the employees stated, managers started checking the employees’ badges greater than as soon as per hour. The location’s common supervisor, Karthik Bagavathi Pandian, got here out twice that day, they stated.

In keeping with the employees and movies that they shared, the managers threatened to self-discipline them if they didn’t take away their tables and an easel holding a poster board, citing issues of safety tied to constructing entry.

The visits from managers continued the next day, in keeping with the three employees. On the third day, they stated, roughly two dozen employees got here to Mr. Bagavathi Pandian’s workplace to protest what they stated was harassment and a violation of their labor rights.

The identical week, human assets officers started questioning the employees concerned in union organizing about their presence close to the doorway of the air hub, in keeping with the employees and a recording they offered. Starting roughly one week earlier than Thanksgiving, greater than 10 of those employees obtained “closing written warnings” citing their refusal to take away the tables when administration instructed them to.

Ms. Levandowski, the Amazon spokeswoman, stated that the staff had refused at the very least 10 requests to maneuver their tables and that “we take acceptable motion when insurance policies are frequently disregarded.”

The query of when and the place Amazon workers can work together with co-workers has loomed massive in union organizing efforts on the firm.

For years, Amazon had a coverage prohibiting employees from lingering in nonwork areas like break rooms earlier than or after their shifts, making it tough for workers to speak with co-workers about unionizing.

In December 2021, the corporate reached a settlement with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board permitting its workers to stay in these areas with out cut-off dates.

However the settlement with the labor board was short-term. In June 2022, just a few months after the union victory on Staten Island, Amazon resumed barring off-duty workers from buildings and outside work areas, in keeping with a consolidated criticism from the Nationwide Labor Relations Board protecting a number of Amazon warehouses in numerous states.

The union contends that Amazon introduced again the restrictions as a result of the laxer strategy allowed employees to win the Staten Island election. “Within the break rooms, you may discuss to a whole lot of individuals each day,” Cassio Mendoza, a former worker who was concerned within the union marketing campaign there, stated shortly after the election. In contrast, he stated, an organizer might need to knock on 50 doorways to have a dialog with one or two workers outdoors of labor.

Within the consolidated criticism, the N.L.R.B. common counsel known as the present coverage illegal and is looking for to pressure the corporate to rescind it.

A choose will contemplate the Amazon coverage in a trial prone to start subsequent yr, until Amazon settles the case beforehand.

Within the meantime, the coverage seems to have performed a job in a few of Amazon’s latest actions towards union supporters. The corporate cited the off-duty entry coverage when firing Mr. Spence on Staten Island and through conferences with employees in Kentucky concerning a gathering they held close to the final supervisor’s workplace.

Three Amazon employees on the Kentucky air hub stated Amazon gave the impression to be cracking down now as a result of their organizing marketing campaign had made progress within the fall. They stated that they had gathered union authorization playing cards from greater than 1,000 of the hub’s roughly 4,000 workers.

“We’ve been extra open about our marketing campaign’s progress within the final month and alter,” stated Griffin Ritze, one of many Kentucky employees concerned within the organizing marketing campaign. “I feel they’ve a way that we have now extra momentum than we’ve ever had.”