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BumRushDaShow

(130,549 posts)
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 05:13 PM Feb 2024

Amazon Joins Companies Arguing US Labor Board Is Unconstitutional

Source: US News and World Report/Reuters

Feb. 16, 2024, at 10:19 a.m.


(Reuters) - Amazon.com has joined rocket maker SpaceX and grocery chain Trader Joe's in claiming that a U.S. labor agency's in-house enforcement proceedings violate the U.S. Constitution, as the retail giant faces scores of cases claiming it interfered with workers' rights to organize.

Amazon in a filing made with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Thursday said it plans to argue that the agency's unique structure violates the company's right to a jury trial. The company also said that limits on the removal of administrative judges and the board's five members, who are appointed by the president, are unconstitutional.

The filing came in a pending case accusing Amazon of illegally retaliating against workers at a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, where employees voted to unionize in 2022. Amazon, which has faced more than 250 NLRB complaints alleging unlawful labor practices across the country in recent years, has denied wrongdoing.

SpaceX is making similar claims against the board in a lawsuit filed last month, one day after the labor board accused the company of firing eight engineers for criticizing CEO Elon Musk in a letter to company executives. Trader Joe's raised the arguments later in January at a hearing in an NLRB case, and two Starbucks baristas seeking to dissolve their unions have challenged the board's structure in separate lawsuits.

Read more: https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-02-16/amazon-joins-companies-arguing-us-labor-board-is-unconstitutional

27 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Amazon Joins Companies Arguing US Labor Board Is Unconstitutional (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Feb 2024 OP
I would challenge them saying that the labor union is not part of the company. LiberalFighter Feb 2024 #1
The Constitution does not apply to "Corporations" Throck Feb 2024 #2
Corporations are people my friend Kennah Feb 2024 #8
I have not found too many people... GiqueCee Feb 2024 #22
You are spot on Kennah Feb 2024 #25
If they don't want to be union, then find a non-union store. Bluethroughu Feb 2024 #11
This message was self-deleted by its author Fullduplexxx Feb 2024 #3
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,. GreenWave Feb 2024 #4
The 3 turds donald dump dropped on the SC.....nt wolfie001 Feb 2024 #5
That was my thought. SleeplessinSoCal Feb 2024 #26
Now why would Smilo Feb 2024 #6
Multiple lawsuits simultaneously target the Executive Branch's authority to regulate industry and commerce. pecosbob Feb 2024 #7
Pitchforks can easily be purchased at most farm stores & home centers Orrex Feb 2024 #14
You can buy or build a smoker suitable for tenderizing and purifying old meat, too. Hermit-The-Prog Feb 2024 #17
If they find against the NRLB Diraven Feb 2024 #16
Labor unions Quiet man Feb 2024 #9
Koch-heads! Bluethroughu Feb 2024 #10
The National Labor Relations Act, and the board it created, are legal under the commerce clause of the Constitution. LudwigPastorius Feb 2024 #12
So was Row v Wade hobby10113 Feb 2024 #13
How can I say this......... then leave this country turbinetree Feb 2024 #15
My Gawd Puppyjive Feb 2024 #18
Bezos has disinvolved himself SouthernDem4ever Feb 2024 #19
We don't need no regulation. We don't need no education. sinkingfeeling Feb 2024 #20
We want the good ole days when companies used armed hired bullies to get rid of unions & got the govt. to send troops! Wonder Why Feb 2024 #21
Billionaires want to be kings & do whatever they want with no accountability dlk Feb 2024 #23
The Constitution says that Congress has the right to regulate commerce. LudwigPastorius Feb 2024 #24
Move to North Korea!! aeromanKC Feb 2024 #27

LiberalFighter

(51,631 posts)
1. I would challenge them saying that the labor union is not part of the company.
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 05:16 PM
Feb 2024

The employees decide. It is an organization restricted to union members.

Throck

(2,520 posts)
2. The Constitution does not apply to "Corporations"
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 05:18 PM
Feb 2024

The Constitution is about individual rights. Other laws might apply.

Kennah

(14,400 posts)
8. Corporations are people my friend
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 05:54 PM
Feb 2024

Mittens didn't start this. It began with Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. in 1886.

GiqueCee

(674 posts)
22. I have not found too many people...
Sat Feb 17, 2024, 01:59 PM
Feb 2024

... that are aware of that case, or that it was a dispute over a fence being used as an excuse to get the case in front of the Supreme Court in hopes of getting a favorable opinion regarding the 14th Amendment. It is also worth noting that Chief Justice Wait was a career railroad toady prior to his appointment to the SCOTUS. As I understand it, Wait stated that, "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. For these purposes, we will assume that it does."
The full story of this case is a dense read, and my memory of it has faded a bit with age (mine!), but it still pisses me off.

Kennah

(14,400 posts)
25. You are spot on
Sat Feb 17, 2024, 05:54 PM
Feb 2024

I think I first heard about it in the documentary "The Corporation". This was back in the days of Netflix mailing discs. There was a lot of extra info, and I watched all of it. The stuff about the Santa Clara County case was very dense stuff. I had to play sections of it over a couple of times.

I think they said the vast majority of 14th Amendment cases heard before the Supreme Court had been focused on corporate personhood and not the original intent.

Response to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

GreenWave

(6,894 posts)
4. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,.
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 05:29 PM
Feb 2024

There it is! UNION! It says right there, so piss off

SleeplessinSoCal

(9,227 posts)
26. That was my thought.
Sun Feb 18, 2024, 02:16 AM
Feb 2024

They have more than a friendly SCOTUS. Bought and paid for via stealing and cheating.

Smilo

(1,945 posts)
6. Now why would
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 05:36 PM
Feb 2024

these corporations not want a labor board?

For workers it will mean fewer protections, less job security, tougher working conditions & lower wages.

For the shareholders & owners it will mean less oversight and responsibility, more freedom to exploit and threaten workers & more money in their bank accounts.

We can't let this happen, but sadly too many Americans see unaware of how unions protect them.

pecosbob

(7,568 posts)
7. Multiple lawsuits simultaneously target the Executive Branch's authority to regulate industry and commerce.
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 05:52 PM
Feb 2024

This is what the billionaire's want...immunity from lawsuits and immunity from regulation.

Orrex

(63,333 posts)
14. Pitchforks can easily be purchased at most farm stores & home centers
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 09:28 PM
Feb 2024

And blueprints for guillotines are readily available online.

Diraven

(567 posts)
16. If they find against the NRLB
Sat Feb 17, 2024, 02:19 AM
Feb 2024

They will definitely be coming after all the other agencies that make and enforce rules and regulations. The basically want to abolish the administrative state so future dictator Trump can rule by decree.

Bluethroughu

(5,218 posts)
10. Koch-heads!
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 07:16 PM
Feb 2024

This is all right-wing wet dream history.

The good old days where the father went to work, and never came home because he was turned into a hotdogs, the mother burned up at a sewing table and the children lost limbs in textile machines.

Pack the court and take back our country before these rapists, paid for by the billionaires, dismantle this country of laws.

LudwigPastorius

(9,338 posts)
12. The National Labor Relations Act, and the board it created, are legal under the commerce clause of the Constitution.
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 07:49 PM
Feb 2024

hobby10113

(51 posts)
13. So was Row v Wade
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 08:10 PM
Feb 2024

My fear is that SCOTUS will find some excuse to find the Wagner act unconstitutional. I have a union job and my employer would love to break the union.

Puppyjive

(512 posts)
18. My Gawd
Sat Feb 17, 2024, 09:00 AM
Feb 2024

How much money and control does Bezo's need? Give the workers a break. Carnegie was a monster. He lived with the guilt of his worker exploitation. It won't go well for Bezo's. Greed has a funny way of infecting it's host. Karma will be knocking on his door.

Wonder Why

(3,432 posts)
21. We want the good ole days when companies used armed hired bullies to get rid of unions & got the govt. to send troops!
Sat Feb 17, 2024, 01:15 PM
Feb 2024


We actually want better new days where billionaire owners have their personal assets taken when they violate labor laws and the government sends U.S. Marshals to arrest them.

dlk

(11,649 posts)
23. Billionaires want to be kings & do whatever they want with no accountability
Sat Feb 17, 2024, 02:10 PM
Feb 2024

They sound like cranky children who don’t get their way. Unfortunately, the level of destruction they can cause is enormous.

LudwigPastorius

(9,338 posts)
24. The Constitution says that Congress has the right to regulate commerce.
Sat Feb 17, 2024, 03:01 PM
Feb 2024

They did when they passed the National Labor Relations Act.

Now fuck off, you corporate scumbags!

A little history:

https://local150.org/newsroom/labor-history-lesson-nazis-destroy-labor-unions-in-1933/

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