NLRB Tips Scales in Staten Island

Last week, a labor union attempting to organize an Amazon facility in Staten Island prevailed in a representation election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. The final vote was 2,654 in favor of the Amazon Workers Union and 2,131 against unionization. 

The liberal media has ceaselessly praised organizer Chris Smalls for orchestrating a David vs. Goliath victory in the Staten Island election. However, there may be more to the story than the media lets on.  

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Sean Redmond has repeatedly pointed out, the NLRB may have tipped the scales in favor of unionization days before the election. 

On March 17th, the NLRB filed a petition in federal court to force Amazon to rehire an employee that was terminated 23 months previously. While the NLRB claimed the firing was an illegal attempt by Amazon to thwart the unionization effort, the real situation is slightly more complicated. 

According to video evidence, the terminated employee hurled sexually charged and profane obscenities over a bullhorn at a female colleague in their shared workplace. The terminated employee called his coworker a “gutter bitch,” “ignorant and stupid,” “crack-head ass” among other obscenities and accused her of being “high” on “fentanyl.” 

Any fair observer would conclude that Amazon was well within its rights to fire an employee conducting himself like this in the workplace. There is no place for this kind of behavior in the workplace, let alone in the throes of a union campaign. 

The NLRB’s intervention amounts to a tacit endorsement of these obscene tactics. That is unacceptable. By filing the petition 23 months after the employee was fired, it is clear that the NLRB was attempting to paint Amazon in a negative light just days before the election. Given how slim the margin of victory was, the NLRB’s petition could have moved the needle just enough to deliver a win for the union.