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Workers stand in line to cast ballots for a union election at Amazon’s JFK8 distribution center, in the Staten Island borough of New York City, U.S. March 25, 2022.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
The National Labor Relations Board has found merit in a union charge that Amazon violated labor law in New York City’s Staten Island by holding mandatory worker meetings to persuade its employees not to unionize.
The labor board has in the past allowed employees to mandate such meetings, which are routinely held at companies like Amazon and Starbucks during union drives.
But in a memo sent to the agency’s field offices last month, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said she believes the meetings, often called “captive audience meetings,” are at odds with labor law, and would seek to get them outlawed.
The agency’s determination was shared Friday with an attorney representing the Amazon Labor Union, which filed the charge in the lead-up to the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant’s history.
The attorney, Seth Goldstein, called it “a big victory.”
“These meetings have been legal for over 70 years,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “Like many other companies, we hold these meetings with our employees because it’s important that everyone understands the facts about joining a union and the election process itself.”
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