Amazon suspended at least 50 workers on Tuesday who were involved in a work stoppage the previous evening at the company’s only unionized warehouse in the United States, union leaders said.
Roughly 100 warehouse associates on the night shift at the Staten Island facility refused to work for several hours on Monday evening, shortly after a fire broke out in a trash compactor machine used on cardboard, according to Amazon Labor Union officials. Labor leaders said the warehouse smelled of smoke and that they couldn’t breathe. One worker went to the hospital, they said.
Seth Goldstein, a labor attorney for Amazon Labor Union, called the suspensions of the Staten Island workers “a violation of workers’ rights to join in a collective action about the terms and conditions of their employment.”
“The workers didn’t feel safe going back to work. They were engaging in rights that have been protected for 85 years under the National Labor Relations Act,” Goldstein said.
Amazon confirmed that company managers had suspended workers with pay who engaged in the work stoppage on Monday, as they investigate the events that took place. Company spokesman Paul Flaningan said that while Amazon respects its workers’ rights to protest, it is not appropriate for employees to occupy active work spaces, break rooms or thoroughfares in its warehouses.
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