Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated labor law with union comments, NLRB rules

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated federal labor law when he said workers would be better off without a union, an administrative law judge for the National Labor Relations Board has found.

Judge Brian Gee ruled Wednesday that a series of comments Jassy made during media interviews in 2022 had “threatened employees” and interfered with their right to unionize.

In those interviews, Jassy acknowledged that it was workers’ right to decide if they wanted to unionize, but continued on to say employees would be “less empowered with a union” and that “it would be harder to get things done quickly … since unions are slower and more bureaucratic.” 

Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said the company strongly disagrees that Jassy’s comments were inappropriate and intends to appeal the NLRB’s ruling. 

“The decision reflects poorly on the state of free speech rights today, and we remain optimistic that we will be able to continue to engage in a reasonable discussion on these issues where all perspectives have an opportunity to be heard,” Paradis said.

Jassy’s comments referred to the growing effort to unionize Amazon’s warehouse workforce, a movement that is still underway but has so far resulted in just one formal vote to unionize. Workers at Amazon’s Staten Island facility in New York City voted to unionize at the end of March 2022. More than two years later, the union still does not have a contract. 

Those workers at Staten Island, the Amazon Labor Union, filed the complaint against Jassy with the NLRB in June 2022, relating to comments the CEO had made earlier that year.  

Seth Goldstein, the union’s attorney, wrote on X that the “landmark ruling” was a “major win for workers’ rights!”

Amazon has 28 days to appeal the ruling. In the meantime, the company must post notices at its facilities, alerting employees that the NLRB has found that it violated federal labor law. The notice tells employees that federal law gives workers the right to form a union and that Amazon will not threaten workers or interfere with those rights. 

Amazon must also distribute a copy of those notices among its workforce. 

Because Jassy’s comments appeared in “national media programs,” Judge Gee determined that Amazon must make sure its postings and distributions of the notice “are national in scope, as well.”