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.

  • unmagical@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    137
    ·
    9 months ago

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

  • cmbabul@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    70
    ·
    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

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    69
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    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@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      27
      ·
      9 months ago

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

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          27
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          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.

  • Hildegarde@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    65
    ·
    9 months ago

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

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      9 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@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        American corporations are becoming vassal states to the American government

        Eh it’s actually the reverse…

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    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@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 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.

  • whoelectroplateuntil@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    9 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?

  • Poggervania@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    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.

  • Bookmeat@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    9 months ago

    It’s okay that Elon exposed the bugs in the legal framework. Now lawmakers know what to patch in legislation.