Amazon settles case with former employees who claim they were illegally fired

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business

Amazon has reached a settlement with two former employees who claimed they were illegally fired after speaking out against the company.

Two former Amazon corporate workers, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, said that Amazon fired them last year after they organized workers around climate action and warehouse conditions during the pandemic. Amazon said it fired the workers for “repeatedly violating internal policies.”

A local branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in Washington State filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board last year, alleging that Amazon violated federal labor law by firing the workers. The NLRB in April found merit to the charges, and the agency issued a complaint. An NLRB administrative law judge was set to hold a hearing on the complaint this week.

The agreement did not include an admission of liability, according to Amazon and UFCW.

In a joint statement issued Wednesday, Cunningham and Costa said the settlement was a “win for protecting workers rights, and shows that we were right to stand up for each other, for justice, and for our world.”

Amazon “will be required to pay us our lost wages and post a notice to all of its tech and warehouse workers nationwide that Amazon can’t fire workers for organizing and exercising their rights,” Cunningham and Costa said.

Amazon did not comment on the specifics of their statement.

“We have reached a mutual agreement that resolves the legal issues in this case and welcome the resolution of this matter,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email.

More than 90% of “meritorious unfair labor practice” cases are settled by agreement, according to the NLRB.

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