Amazon.Com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock is trading lower Tuesday following reports of a potential employee walkout and labor board’s allegations of violating laws by the company and CEO Andy Jassy.
Amazon employees propose a walkout on May 31, a week after the company’s annual meeting, to protest its layoffs, return-to-office mandate, and concerns about its climate commitments.
The walkout, likely to draw at least 1,000 Seattle-based participants, reflects a more significant wave of anxiety spilling over into agitation among Silicon Valley workers as hiring freezes follow mass layoffs amid a looming potential recession, the Washington Post reports.
Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ:META) employees also suffered a loss of morale as its top bosses bagged big bonuses while the company laid off thousands of people.
The problems with tech flared up a year ago as interest rates surged and hurt the ability of start-ups to gain easy access to cash. Amazon was among the first companies to say it had overhired during the pandemic.
Amazon eliminated 27,000 jobs since 2022. It also rejected a petition seeking a reconsideration of the return-to-office mandate.
Also, the U.S. labor board prosecutors charged Amazon for flouting federal labor law and CEO Andy Jassy for personally making illegal anti-union comments.
Amazon, which had opposed unionization attempts, now faced National Labor Relations Board allegations of restricting employees’ ability to visit their unionized New York City warehouse during their time off to discourage them from engaging in labor activism, Bloomberg cites a filing.
NLRB also alleged Amazon of its practices on paid leave for Covid-19 cases and accused the company of terminating two employees due to their involvement in the Amazon Labor Union.
Jassy faced heat for flagging that union representation would make workers less empowered and more challenging to have direct relationships with managers during the New York Times Dealbook summit in November. The NLRB flagged similar comments from Jassy to CNBC and Bloomberg.
Price Action: AMZN shares trade lower by 0.50% at $114.44 premarket on the last check Tuesday.
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