Retail giant Amazon sued New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday after she threatened legal recourse over a protest at one of the company’s facilities during the beginning of the pandemic.
Amazon came under fire in March 2020 when a number of workers demonstrated in a Staten Island warehouse, which employs 5,000 people, to demand stronger coronavirus protocols. Christian Smalls, an Amazon worker, was terminated by top brass after leading his colleagues out of the facility during a lunch break, drawing condemnation from Empire State leaders, including James, who initiated an investigation into the corporation’s conduct.
Amazon accused James of violating federal labor laws when she threatened legal action and demanded that the company hand over profits, according to a complaint obtained by the Washington Examiner. On March 30, around the time of Smalls’s protest, city authorities inspected the retail giant’s facility and indicated that it passed guidelines on social distancing, shift separations, and temperature checks.
Attorneys for Amazon called the investigation and the apparent worker strike “baseless.”
James, who has filed a number of high-profile lawsuits during her tenure, insisted the conditions were “unsafe” and added that Amazon is focused on making “billions” off its employees in a Friday statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“Throughout this pandemic, Amazon employees have been forced to work in unsafe conditions, all while the company and its CEO made billions off of their backs,” she said. “This action by Amazon is nothing more than a sad attempt to distract from the facts and shirk accountability for its failures to protect hardworking employees from a deadly virus. Let me be clear: We will not be intimidated by anyone, especially corporate bullies that put profits over the health and safety of working people. We remain undeterred in our efforts to protect workers from exploitation and will continue to review all of our legal options.”
Courtney Bowden, another Amazon worker, was fired last March after she demanded that the company provide employees paid time off during the pandemic. In December, Bowden, alongside the National Labor Relations Board, filed a suit against Amazon claiming that her termination was unlawful.
She said she’s pursuing the litigation so that “coworkers see that speaking up about bad working conditions and work benefits is not wrong, and to not be fearful for speaking up for what’s right, because they have a right by law.”
