Amazon.com, Inc’s stock, represented by the ticker AMZN, is currently trading lower on Tuesday following news that there may be a potential employee walkout happening soon and allegations by the labor board over the company and CEO Andy Jassy violating laws.
The walkout, which may occur on May 31, one week after the company’s annual meeting, is a protest of the layoffs implemented by the company, their return-to-office mandate, and concerns over their climate commitments. This Seattle-based event is expected to draw at least 1,000 participants and reflects an increasing wave of unrest among Silicon Valley workers as hiring freezes and mass layoffs continue to occur due to the potential recession in the near future.
Employee morale is also low at Meta Platforms, Inc (represented by the ticker META) due to reports that the top bosses received large bonuses while the company laid off thousands of employees. The tech industry’s problems began to appear a year ago with the rise of interest rates, which reduced start-ups’ access to cash. Amazon was among the first companies to disclose that it had overhired during the pandemic, resulting in the elimination of 27,000 jobs since 2022. The petition to reconsider their return-to-office mandate was also rejected.
In addition, the U.S. labor board prosecutors recently charged Amazon and CEO Andy Jassy for violating federal labor laws and making illegal anti-union comments. Bloomberg cites a filing, which alleges that Amazon restricted employees’ ability to visit their unionized New York City warehouse during their time off to discourage them from engaging in labor activism. NLRB also accused Amazon of restricting paid leave for Covid-19 cases and terminating two employees involved in the Amazon Labor Union.
Jassy’s comments from the New York Times Dealbook summit in November, where he flagged that union representation would make workers less empowered and more difficult to have direct relationships with managers, were also flagged by NLRB. Similar comments from Jassy to CNBC and Bloomberg were also reported by NLRB.
Current market status: As of the last check on Tuesday, AMZN shares trade lower by 0.50% at $114.44 premarket.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
