Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks with CNBC’s Jon Fortt.
CNBC
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated federal labor laws when he remarked in current interviews that staff could be negatively impacted by unions, a federal labor agency mentioned.
In a complaint late Wednesday, the National Labor Relations Board pointed to comments Jassy created in an April interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box” and a June interview at the Bloomberg Tech Summit.
Jassy told CNBC that if staff have been to vote in a union, they might be significantly less empowered in the workplace and issues would turn out to be “substantially slower” and “extra bureaucratic.”
“I also consider folks are superior off getting direct connections with their managers,” Jassy mentioned. “You know, you consider about function differently. You have relationships that are diverse.”
He echoed these comments in the Bloomberg interview, saying workers would be “superior off devoid of a union.”
Jassy’s comments resulted in him “interfering with, restraining, and coercing staff in the exercising of the rights assured” in the National Labor Relations Act, mentioned Ronald Hooks, regional director of the NLRB’s Seattle workplace, in the complaint.
Amazon have to respond to the NLRB complaint by Nov. eight, and the workplace has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 7. The complaint also requests that Amazon mail and e mail workers a notice informing them of their labor rights.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNBC in a statement: “These allegations are entirely devoid of merit, and the comments in query are clearly protected by express language of the National Labor Relations Act and decades of NLRB precedent. The comments lawfully clarify Amazon’s views on unionization and the way it could have an effect on the capability of our staff to deal straight with their managers, and they started with a clear recognition of our employees’ ideal to organize and in no way contained threats of reprisal.”
The complaint comes as Amazon continues to face an uptick in organizing activity amongst its warehouse and delivery workforce. Last week, Amazon workers at a fulfillment center close to Albany rejected unionization.
The Amazon Labor Union, which filed an unfair-labor-practice charge with the NLRB more than Jassy’s comments, on Tuesday objected to the outcomes of the Albany election, saying Amazon’s conduct “destroyed any possibility for the Region to conduct a free of charge and fair election” and chilled union efforts.
The ALU accomplished a historic victory in April when workers at a Staten Island warehouse voted to join the union. Since then, the grassroots group has lost two union elections, and a nascent work to organize a California warehouse has stalled.
WATCH: Watch CNBC’s complete interview with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on his 1st annual letter to shareholders
