The National Labor Relations Board started hearing arguments Monday over whether Amazon has tried to prevent workers at its Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport location from unionizing.
Marcio Rodriguez is on the organizing committee. He says the effort started two years ago and has met resistance along the way.
“Amazon has not taken kindly to our efforts and has repeatedly violated our legal rights,” he says. “They’ve also … hired dozens of outside professional union busters and are paying them obscene amounts of money to tell us that we don’t need a union.”
Rodriguez says the workers are demanding higher wages and guaranteed time off, along with union representation.
The NLRB opened an investigation in March.
Ramp worker Riss Krull says Amazon has tried to stop all talk about organizing.
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“That’s against the law,” she says. “When KCVG workers refused to back down and continued to exercise our rights to organize, Amazon threatened to call the police and issue disciplinary action against us. That’s also against the law.”
Krull says the company has spied on and tried to intimidate organizing workers.
Amazon says in a statement the company "favors opportunities for each person to be respected and valued as an individual," but employees have the choice to join a union or not. Spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis says the company is already offering what many unions are requesting.
