Amazon is arguing in a legal filing that the 88-year-old National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional, resembling the similar arguments made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Trader Joe’s in disputes about worker’s rights and organizing.
This filling made by Amazon this Thursday, came in response to a case where an administrative law judge overseeing a complaint from agency prosecutors who allege that the company unlawfully retaliated against workers at a New York city warehouse who were unionized two years ago.
Amazon denies many of the charges and asks for the complaint against it to be dismissed. Amazons’ attorney argued that the structure of the agency limits on the removal of administrative law judges and five board members who were appointed by the president which violates the separation of power and steps on the executive powers stipulated in the constitution.
He also argued that the NLRB proceedings deny the trial by a jury and violates due-process rights under the 5th Amendment.
Seth Goldstein, an attorney representing both Amazon labor Union and the Labor group Trader Joe’s United, said the trend was “very frightening”.
“Since they can’t defeat successful union organizing, they now want to just destroy the whole process,” the attorney said.
The argument from Amazon, which has long resisted organizing efforts and is continuously seeking a redo of the sole union win at its US warehouse, which follows the similar claim made by SpaceX and Trader Joe’s in a separate lawsuit.
At a labor board hearing in January over allegations Trader Joe’s retaliated against union activism, their attorney said that NLRB and its panel of administrative law judges are structured unconstitutionally.
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