By HALELUYA HADERO, AP Business Author
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon has suspended at the very least 50 warehouse employees who refused to work their shifts following a trash compactor fire at one in all its Recent York facilities, in keeping with union organizers.
The corporate suspended the employees, with pay, on Tuesday, a day after the hearth disrupted operations on the Staten Island warehouse that voted to unionize earlier this yr.
Derrick Palmer, the vp of the Amazon Labor Union, said day-shift employees were sent home with pay on account of the hearth, which began late afternoon Monday. But night-shift employees, who were just coming in for his or her shift were told to stay in a break area until management found out the situation, he said.
Dozens of employees began to lift concerns about safety. Some were anxious the air in the ability can be unsafe to breathe due to smoke from the hearth. Eventually, roughly 100 employees held a sit-down protest at the ability’s predominant office, demanding to be sent home with pay.
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“They were saying ‘we don’t feel secure, we don’t feel secure to work,’” Palmer said.
Amazon spokesperson Paul Flaningan said in a prepared statement that the corporate had asked all night shift employees to report back to their shifts on Monday after the Recent York Fire Department certified the constructing as secure.
“While the overwhelming majority of employees reported to their workstations, a small group refused to return to work and remained within the constructing without permission,” Flaningan said. Some employees had also walked out, while others continued with the protest, in keeping with organizers.
The suspended employees were notified by email and phone that their security badges can be inactive throughout the duration of the probe, Palmer said. The suspensions are in effect indefinitely as the corporate investigates. The variety of suspended employees could rise. Seth Goldstein, an attorney for the union, said the employees intend to file unfair labor practice charges against Amazon with the National Labor Relations Board.
Amazon has filed over two dozen objections with the agency searching for to toss out the union’s April win. Meanwhile, warehouse employees at a separate facility near Albany, Recent York can be voting in their very own union election next week.
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