Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated labor laws with recent union remarks, officials allege

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated national labour laws erstwhile helium remarked successful caller interviews astir however employees could beryllium negatively impacted by unions, a national labour bureau said.

In a ailment precocious Wednesday, the National Labor Relations Board pointed to comments Jassy made successful an April interrogation with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin connected "Squawk Box" and a June interrogation astatine the Bloomberg Tech Summit.

Jassy told CNBC that if employees were to ballot successful a union, they whitethorn beryllium little empowered successful the workplace, and things would go "much slower" and "more bureaucratic."

"I besides deliberation radical are amended disconnected having nonstop connections with their managers," Jassy said. "You know, you deliberation astir enactment differently. You person relationships that are different."

He echoed those comments in the Bloomberg interview, saying workers would beryllium "better disconnected without a union."

Jassy's comments resulted successful him "interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees successful the workout of the rights guaranteed" successful the National Labor Relations Act, said Ronald Hooks, determination manager of the NLRB's Seattle office, successful the complaint.

Amazon indispensable respond to the NLRB ailment by Nov. 8, and the bureau has scheduled a proceeding for Feb. 7. The ailment besides requests that Amazon message and email workers a announcement informing them of their labour rights.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNBC successful a statement: "These allegations are wholly without merit, and the comments successful question are intelligibly protected by explicit connection of the National Labor Relations Act and decades of NLRB precedent. The comments lawfully explicate Amazon's views connected unionization and the mode it could impact the quality of our employees to woody straight with their managers, and they began with a wide designation of our employees' close to signifier and successful nary mode contained threats of reprisal."

The ailment comes arsenic Amazon continues to look an uptick successful organizing enactment among its warehouse and transportation workforce. Last week, Amazon workers astatine a fulfillment halfway adjacent Albany rejected unionization.

The Amazon Labor Union, which filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint with the NLRB implicit Jassy's comments, connected Tuesday objected to the results of the Albany election, saying Amazon's behaviour "destroyed immoderate anticipation for the Region to behaviour a escaped and just election," and chilled national efforts.

The ALU achieved a historic triumph successful April erstwhile workers astatine a Staten Island warehouse voted to articulation the union. Since then, the grassroots radical has mislaid 2 national elections, and a nascent effort to organize a California warehouse has stalled.

WATCH: Watch CNBC's afloat interrogation with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy connected archetypal yearly missive to shareholders