A federal judge has ordered Amazon.com to stop retaliating against employees engaged in workplace activism, issuing a mixed ruling that also hands a loss to the federal labor agency that sued the company earlier this year. The ruling came in a court case brought by the National Labor Relations Board, which sued Amazon in March seeking the reinstatement of a fired employee who was involved in organizing a company warehouse on Staten Island, New York.
Total Retail’s Take: Amazon has been clear in its opposition to its workforce unionizing, particularly its employees at warehouses across the country. That doesn’t make it unique in the retail industry, with other leading employers such as Apple and Starbucks taking similar stances. Why are retailers aggressively fighting unions? The simple answer is that labor unions will cost them more money in the form of higher wages and additional benefits. However, retailers need to be cognizant of their brand image as they push to suppress employees from forming unions. There’s the potential negative impact of consumer pushback as well as the longer term fallout of talent shortages as job-seekers look elsewhere for employment.
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