Amazon sued New York State to block a new labor law. The company has stated that this is unconstitutional because it gives the state powers that, under federal law, belong exclusively to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This agency is responsible for overseeing union activity and collective bargaining in the private sector.
The legal battle has barely started, but the case has already made headlines and opened debates about the role of the states in the regulation of labor rights versus the authority of the federal government. So, let’s learn more about this Amazon lawsuit and the conflict.
Origin of the dispute between Amazon and New York
The conflict started on September 5, when Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Senate Bill 8034A. According to her words, this law aimed to protect workers given the backlog of cases at the NLRB, in which hundreds of cases were delayed after President Donald Trump ousted Democratic board member Gwynne Wilcox in January.
This new measure gave New York’s regulator, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), authority to intervene in private sector labor relations. However, for Amazon, this is an ‘’unconstitutional abuse of power’’ because it doubles functions that should remain only with the federal government.
The Staten Island case
One of the greatest examples of the conflict is what happened at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island:
- On August 9, the PERB applied the new law to file a complaint over the dismissal of Brima Sylla, a warehouse worker and vice president of a local union.
- However, the NLRB had already started reviewing the same case.
- For Amazon, this situation creates a direct jurisdictional conflict with both state and federal authorities investigating the same issue.
Official responses
For now, neither the PERB nor the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James have said anything about Amazon’s lawsuit. The company itself, with headquarters in Seattle and more than 1.56 million workers, has neither commented anything after filing the lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn.
Amazon is not alone in this dispute
Not only this legal conflict affects Amazon. On September 12, the same NLRB filed a lawsuit against the New York State in a federal court in Albany to block the implementation of this law.
According to legal experts, now the decision is in the judges’ hands, who will have to determine if the federal legislation over unions continues or if New York has the right to intervene with state-level regulations.
NLRB acting general counsel William Cowen already said that this will be a key point to define the limits of state power in labor disputes.
Amazon and its workers
The conflict about the new labor law of New York reflects a wider debate:
- For Amazon, it’s about avoiding states taking control over functions considered exclusively from the federal government.
- For New York, the aim is to protect workers against NLRB’s delays and guarantee that union cases are solved fast.
The result of this situation will have a direct impact on how union complaints are managed and on Amazon’s relation with its workers in New York, mostly in key centers like Staten Island.
For now, Amazon and the NLRB agree on one point: they consider the new New York law oversteps constitutional boundaries. In the end, judges will be the ones deciding the fate of the law (which could set an important precedent for the future of labor legislation in the U.S.). So, where do you stand? Should states like New York have the power to step in when federal systems stall, or should companies like Amazon only answer to federal law?