Mark Lennihan/AP
- A union organizer at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, facility said the company tried to discipline him for talking about the union with his colleagues.
- Amazon accused David Isaiah Thomas of soliciting on behalf of the union during work hours.
- Workers at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, facility are set for another union vote on February 4.
An Amazon warehouse worker in Bessemer, Alabama, said he had been warned by the company about talking to workers about forming a union.
David Isaiah Thomas, one of the union organizers at the Amazon facility, filed two complaints with the National Labor Relations Board Monday evening alleging that Amazon attempted to discipline him for talking about the union with his colleagues — in violation of the company’s settlement agreement with the National Labor Relations Board.
The complaints alleged that Amazon “unlawfully interfered with, restrained, coerced and/or discriminated against” Thomas.
“Mr. Thomas is an outspoken supporter of the Union. Shortly after questioning a labor relations manager during a captive audience meeting about the employer’s union-busting positions, Mr. Thomas observed the employer’s agent circling his work area of no other purpose than to watch him,” according to one complaint. “The employer also assigned Mr. Thomas to a work area where he is more easily observed by the employer’s supervisors and/or agents.”
Last year, a union drive at the warehouse in Bessemer failed as workers voted against forming a union. The NLRB later said Amazon had illegally interfered in the drive and ordered a new vote held on February 4. According to the NLRB, 6,143 employees are eligible to participate in the upcoming vote.
In a letter from Amazon to Thomas seen by Insider, the warehouse management at Amazon said Thomas was soliciting in working areas during work hours.
“While we understand your activity may have occurred during your break time, you were interfering with fellow associates during their working time, in their work areas,” the letter said.
The management called it “a violation of Amazon’s lawful solicitation policy” for workers to engage in any kind of solicitation on company premises during working time and distributing “literature or materials of any type or description (other than as necessary in the course of your job) in working areas at any time.”
“Nothing in Amazon’s solicitation policy restricts you, as an associate, from engaging in solicitation in non-work areas or while you and the associates you are soliciting are both on non-work time,” said letter continued. “Non-work areas include, but may not be limited to, the parking lot and the site break rooms.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. The NLRB also did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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