Amazon settles with two Seattle workers who say they were wrongfully fired for their advocacy

Amazon has settled a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board that two Seattle office workers, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, were illegally fired in retaliation for their advocacy on behalf of warehouse workers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The settlement requires Amazon to pay Costa and Cunningham for lost wages and notify all of its employees that they have the right to take collective action and make public statements on work-related matters.

Costa and Cunningham described the deal in a statement as “a win for the protection of workers’ rights”.

“It has also not escaped our notice that we are two women who have been targeted,” they added. “Inequality, racism and sexism are at the heart of both the climate crisis and the pandemic.”

Amazon “Welcome”[s] the solution to this matter, “said spokesman Jose Negrete in an email.

The deal comes amid ongoing criticism from workers ’representatives of Amazon’s stance on organizing workers, particularly following an unsuccessful union campaign at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.

Costa and Cunningham, leaders of the activist group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, were fired last April, days before an event in which they asked their colleagues to take part in a day-long “virtual strike” in support of warehouse workers. Costa and Cunningham had previously tweeted public charges about working conditions in Amazon’s warehouses.

Amazon has stated that it has fired employees for repeatedly violating internal policies that publicly comment on the company’s business without management approval.

Seattle’s United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 21 filed a complaint with the NLRB last October alleging that Amazon’s firing of Costa and Cunningham violated employees’ rights to organize in their workplace. The deal came ahead of a hearing on Wednesday, which was postponed several times as the parties pushed for an agreement on the terms.

“To be able to help un-unionized workers who were legally compliant and dismissed was an honor and responsibility that we took very seriously,” UFCW 21 President Faye Guenther said in a statement. “We felt that the workers had a strong point from the start and we want to encourage all workers to speak up in a collective and constructive way to improve their jobs if they so choose.”

Although Costa and Cunningham are no longer with Amazon – Costa now works for Microsoft; Cunningham is out of work – they plan to continue working with Amazon Employees for Climate Justice to push the trade giant to set and meet ambitious carbon-reduction targets. The group, made up of current and former Amazon employees, came to the fore in late 2019 when they organized a strike of more than 1,700 employees and called on the tech giant to reduce its carbon footprint. Over the past year, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice has turned much of its attention to climate justice and workplace issues, including advocating on behalf of warehouse workers amid the pandemic.

“We are much more afraid of the climate crisis than we are of Amazon,” Cunningham told members of the group last week at a rally held to support Cunningham and Costa ahead of the hearing. “We have an incredibly narrow window to change that.”

In its latest climate report, Amazon said its carbon footprint increased 19% over the past year.

The company also faced regulatory challenges related to its actions during the union election at Bessemer’s camp.

The NLRB concluded last month that Amazon was improperly meddling in this election, including by asking employees how they wanted to vote in the presence of supervisors and installing an unauthorized voting box near surveillance cameras. Amazon’s behavior “justifies a second choice,” recommended the NLRB in this case.