<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654287254662,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016e-d7e3-da57-abee-ffebcdf80002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654287254662,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016e-d7e3-da57-abee-ffebcdf80002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54287148", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"813327"} }); ","_id":"00000181-2b34-d421-ada5-6f7d3b390000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedProgressive Democrats have criticized Amazon for trying to censor workers in an internal messaging app that they argue violates federal labor laws as the retail giant tries to resist worker efforts to unionize.
Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sent a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Thursday to criticize him for using an internal messaging app to silence his workers who either have gripes with the company or might want to unionize.
They cited a report from The Intercept, which says that the soon-to-be-released Amazon internal app bans workers from using terms and phrases such as “union,” “pay raise,” “compensation,” “accessibility,” “injustice,” “slave labor,” “harassment,” and “threat.”
“Unfortunately, the Proposed App and its anti-worker censorship fit all too well with Amazon’s track record of worker surveillance, inhumane treatment, and union busting,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Jassy.
“The company’s banning of the words that keep workers from expressing their concerns about racialized workplace mistreatment is particularly problematic,” they added.
AMAZON UNION LOSES VOTE AT SECOND NEW YORK FACILITY DESPITE BIDEN AND SANDERS SUPPORT
The issue of online censorship has become a particularly controversial and polarized matter in recent years.
Liberals have typically justified some censorship on social media platforms because of problems related to online misinformation and disinformation, meaning false information that is spread deliberately and covertly, which liberals say is a dangerous threat to democracy. Conservatives, however, increasingly say that the threat of disinformation is wrongly used as a cover to censor them unfairly.
The Democratic lawmakers said Amazon’s efforts to muzzle its workers and prevent them from discussing their working conditions showed that the company wanted to suppress efforts by its workers to speak out and organize against poor working conditions.
The lawmakers said Amazon’s internal app censorship could be unlawful because they said workplace discussions between employees are protected under the National Labor Relations Act, and they suggest other aspects of the app could violate the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.
“By censoring communications, Amazon is sending a message to workers that discussing working conditions will not be tolerated and that Amazon will exercise its power to monitor and stop such communications. This could have an unlawful chilling effect on workers’ protected concerted activity,” the Democratic lawmakers said.
Amazon’s labor union recently lost a key vote to unionize a second New York City warehouse in May, a setback for efforts to organize workers at the e-commerce giant supported by prominent Democrats.
Biden threw his support behind the Amazon workers and championed their unionization cause earlier in April.
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Others on the Left, such as Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, have also supported the Amazon union activists in New York, with Sanders even accusing the tech giant of having “horrible working conditions.”
