Reprinted from The Hill by Rebecca Klar on October 15, 2020.
Democratic senators questioned Amazon on Thursday over reports of the company’s efforts to undermine workers’ rights to unionize.
The senators wrote to Amazon calling for details regarding the e-commerce giant’s policies and actions in light of reports about it surveilling and retaliating against workers.
“Each of these reports is deeply troubling, and taken together, they suggest a pattern of significant abuse of workers and their rights,” Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) wrote in the letter.
“The fact that Amazon has decided to heavily invest in systems to avoid unionization, and to refer to such organizing efforts as threats against the company equal to those posed by hate groups and terrorism, is unacceptable. Labor organizing campaigns are legally protected activity,” they added. …