An Amazon union avoidance officer has reportedly instructed employees on the firm’s JFK8 warehouse that there is a chance they may get decrease pay than what they’re at present getting in the event that they unionize. Motherboard has obtained an audio recording of a compulsory anti-union assembly that occurred on Wednesday, whereby the officer might be heard describing the collective bargaining course of. “The negotiation phase of the process is called collective bargaining, and in the negotiation, there are no guarantees. You can end up with better, the same, or worse than you already have,” the officer stated. 

An worker then cuts in and asks what they imply that employees may find yourself with worse, and the officer responds that there are not any ensures what would occur: “We can’t promise what’s going to happen. Amazon can’t promise you that they’re going to walk into negotiations and that the negotiations will start from the same [pay and benefits workers have already]. They could start from minimum wage for instance. I don’t think that will happen, but it’s a possibility.” 

“So you’re saying that Amazon’s gonna say…” the employee stated, to which the officer responded: “I just said I’m not saying that.” When the employee requested “So why put that out there?,” the officer utterly modified the subject. In addition, the officer additionally talked about how employees shall be liable to pay union dues in the event that they unionize and that there isn’t any restrict to how a lot they might be charged in New York. The election could have “significant and binding consequences not just for yourselves but for future associates, your coworkers, and potentially for your family,” they warned. 

Frank Kearl, the lawyer representing employees at JFK8, instructed Motherboard:

“The [union avoidance consultant] makes the risk and tries to stroll it again however when you’ve poisoned the effectively you may’t take it again. Even although she realized she made a mistake in making the risk, it doesn’t imply the risk wasn’t made and heard by all the employees who had been compelled to take a seat in on that session. It’s towards the regulation and an unfair labor apply to make a risk of reprisal.”

The National Labor Relations Board had beforehand accused Amazon of threatening, surveilling and interrogating employees at its JFK8 warehouse to discourage them from unionizing. A union avoidance guide reportedly instructed them again then that organizing on the warehouse would fail anyway, as a result of the organizers had been “thugs.” Amazon denied the allegations. 

The Amazon Labor Union, which is an impartial group searching for to characterize employees within the firm, efficiently collected sufficient signatures at JFK8 in its second try and unionize. Amazon and the ALU have reached an settlement to carry an in-person union vote on the facility between March twenty fifth and March thirtieth.