{"id":81279,"date":"2021-03-17T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=348045"},"modified":"2021-03-17T11:00:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:00:08","slug":"amazon-retaliated-against-chicago-workers-following-spring-covid-19-protests-nlrb-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/17\/amazon-retaliated-against-chicago-workers-following-spring-covid-19-protests-nlrb-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Retaliated Against Chicago Workers Following Spring Covid-19 Protests, NLRB Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
In April 2020,<\/u> as the world was coming to terms with the new coronavirus pandemic, workers at an Amazon sorting facility in Chicago launched a series of safety strikes<\/a> to demand Covid-19 protections for all staff. It was one of several organized protests by Amazon workers nationwide<\/a>, and the actions in Chicago, at the DCH1 delivery station in Pilsen on the south side of the city, came after management announced in late March that a worker had tested positive for the virus.<\/p>\n \u201cWe decided to take a stand,\u201d said Shantrece Johnson, a worker who was involved. \u201cMost of us, we don\u2019t mind working, but we\u2019re in the middle of a pandemic, and we had the potential to bring this [virus] home.\u201d Johnson ultimately contracted Covid-19 in mid-April, before Amazon agreed to provide\u00a0personal protective equipment to workers at the warehouse.<\/p>\n Roughly 70\u00a0to 80 workers participated in the four safety strikes. Among other things, the Chicago workers demanded that their warehouse be shut down for two weeks and cleaned; that Amazon cover the costs of any medical bills for workers who get sick on the job; that the warehouse pause processing nonessential items; and that management provide immediate transparency if and when anyone else got infected.<\/p>\n Following the strikes, DCH1 Amazon workers said they faced retaliation in the form of intimidation and disciplinary write-ups. Johnson herself was written up, she said, for ostensibly not obeying social distancing. The workers banded together and filed a charge<\/a> with their regional National Labor Relations Board office. Their charge, known as an unfair labor practice, or ULP, included five allegations of National Labor Relations Act violations. The workers accused their site lead, Domonic Wilkerson, of unlawfully disciplining them for protected activities, unlawfully interrogating them, unlawfully engaging in surveillance, unlawfully breaking up their gatherings, and maintaining an \u201coverly broad rule\u201d that precluded gatherings on Amazon\u2019s property outside their normal shifts.<\/p>\n