“Saints and Begorrah!” Faced With Discovery Sanctions At NLRB, Amazon Moves To Settle A Passel Of Its Unfair Labor Charges

[Another of our once a month “look-ins”, on Amazon’s atrocious labor practices — and their longer-term consequences. This month: good news, for the little guys — and a call-back, to the US Molly Maguires, of mining labor unrest fame in the 1880s to early 1900s!]

Earlier this month, the Amazon Labor Union lawyers moved for sanctions against Amazon, for foot-dragging on delivering documents, and that motion was joined by the General Counsel of the NLRB Region. As a result, if the court hearing it decided that Amazon had in fact violated the discovery rules, one fairly-likely outcome could be that Amazon could not offer large portions of what would have been management’s testimony and documents against the unfair labor practices charges.

So — wisely, I think — yesterday, Amazon’s lawyers filed a motion to move at least ten cases to a settlement judge. Essentially, the company realizes… it is unlikely to prevail, so it is time to settle. We will let you know when / if that motion to go to settlement judge proceedings is granted — but I do expect it will be. Here’s the latest, filed yesterday:

…Pursuant to Section 102.35(b) of the Board’s Rules and Regulations, Respondent Amazon.com Services LLC (hereinafter the “Respondent”) hereby requests the appointment of a settlement judge other than the trial judge in order to more efficiently resolve the ongoing litigation contained in the above-captioned cases as well as the allegations contained in Consolidated Case Nos. 29-CA-280153, 29-CA-286577, 29-CA-287614, 29-CA-290880, 29-CA-292392, 29-CA-295663 and Consolidated Case Nos.
29-CA-292844, 29 CA-293838, 29-CA-294857, and 29-CA-299139. Respondent hereby requests an opportunity to present oral argument regarding this Request at the earliest convenience of the ALJ and parties to this case….

Now you know. And since Amazon is the moving party — if a settlement is reached, Amazon will have to waive any right to appeal the outcome. That’s good news, for us stateside Molly Maguires. Okay… time to go make some green-dyed mashed potatoes — to go with green-dyed chicken for dinner! Éire go Brách… Hah!

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