Amazon is arguing in a legal filing that the 88-year-old National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional, echoing similar arguments made this year by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the grocery store chain Trader Joe’s in disputes about workers’ rights and organizing.

The Amazon filing, made Thursday, came in response to a case before an administrative law judge overseeing a complaint from agency prosecutors who allege the company unlawfully retaliated against workers at a New York City warehouse who voted to unionize nearly two years ago.

In its filing, Amazon denies many of the charges and asks for the complaint to be dismissed. The company’s attorneys then go further, arguing that the structure of the agency — particularly limits on the removal of administrative law judges and five board members appointed by the president — violates the separation of powers and infringes on executive powers stipulated in the Constitution.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1689 months ago

    Massive corporations who stand to make unfathomable amounts of wealth if oversight is removed spend money to deconstruct and remove oversight.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          339 months ago

          Someone should leave some weed in an Amazon warehouse and then tell the police to raid, it would be great to see an Amazon warehouse locked up for 20 years for possession =)

          • @SpaceNoodle
            link
            289 months ago

            Corporations are people, and all people are equal, but corporations are more equal than people.

  • queermunist she/her
    link
    fedilink
    79
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    If we don’t launch a general strike when the fascist Court guts the already weak NLRB then we’re going to lose everything. We’re already bringing back child labor, we’re already not lettting people retire, we’re already allowing union busting, but with the NLRB gone we’re fucked.

    • Che Banana
      link
      fedilink
      -279 months ago

      Got Out while the gettin’ was good. Get out while you can…It ain’t easy but it is manageable. Save yourselves.

      • @Meltrax
        link
        259 months ago

        Wtf does this even mean? Get out how?

        • Snot Flickerman
          link
          fedilink
          English
          37
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          It means they were privileged enough to “escape” as if the spectre of the worlds largest military in the hands of tyrannical fascists won’t affect other places, too.

          Further, it’s a real “I got out, you just need to pull yourselves up by your bootstraps” bullshit vibe that judges the weakest for being unable to escape.

          The privileged will be happy to escape and leave the rest of us to suffer while preaching about how they saw it all coming and so should have we, as if we didn’t see it coming instead of simply not having the privilege to escape.

  • @cmbabul
    link
    78
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    Of all the nightmarish shit on our horizon I think this one is the biggest overall threats, if the government can’t regulate labor policies not only will worker abuse intensify but soon all regulations will fall and giant corporations will complete their transformation into mammoth entities of dystopian sci fi. Your Weyland-Yutanis, Arasakas, Shin-Ras, Choam’s, and Dutch East India Companies. And above all else climate change will not be mitigated in any way

  • Hildegarde
    link
    729 months ago

    SpaceX, Amazon, and Trader Joes are not mentioned in the constitution, so they should all be despanded as they are unconstitutional.

  • @gedaliyahM
    link
    459 months ago

    So basically corporations aren’t just people, they’re sovereign citizens.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      69 months ago

      American corporations are becoming vassal states to the American government, who in turn, as the suzerain, limits itself to providing an army.

      • @GhostFence
        link
        19 months ago

        American corporations are becoming vassal states to the American government

        Eh it’s actually the reverse…

  • originalucifer
    link
    fedilink
    34
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    to me, this means its too late.

    they already know the answer. the SC is bought and paid for. they have clearly already been informed that bringing this will garner the result they want.

  • @ikidd
    link
    English
    269 months ago

    Maybe we should argue the corporation act is unconstitutional and dissolve all corporate veils. Everything that company does, the shareholders are personally responsible for.

      • @meco03211
        link
        29 months ago

        The law is just applied more heavily equally to peasants citizens.

  • Poggervania
    link
    fedilink
    11
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    I’ll be more than happy to let go of the NLB if it means corporations and the ultrarich will be taxed 100% for any income or wealth above $1 million USD with any and all loopholes closed.

    Unfortunately that will never happen, so it’s just fucking disgusting things with money can attempt to dictate shit like this.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    119 months ago

    Considering that the literal modern social contract is predicated on, at least, the formal right to organize, which in turn is underpinned by the NLRB, if the fascist supreme court overturns it, that means workers will be footloose and fancy-free in terms of national allegiance, huh?

  • @AngryCommieKender
    link
    59 months ago

    Bezos is volunteering to be barricaded into his already burning mansion

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      17
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      Have you seen our lawmakers? Even the ones that want to help can’t do shit because half the people in Congress are just there to sabotage it and push a fascist agenda.