3 Amazon workers say they are under investigation for speaking out about data centers

Earlier this month, Five current Amazon employees publicly urged the Seattle City Council To organize data centers. It was an unprecedented act of advocacy by tech workers, and now, three employees say they are now the subject of an internal investigation over what they understood to be them representing themselves as spokespersons for the company without prior approval. “It’s a completely ridiculous claim,” says Patrick Schlosser, one of the affected employees. “It’s patently absurd.”

The three software engineers, who work in different departments at Amazon and all live in Seattle, believe they are being unfairly targeted for expressing their political beliefs. They filed a joint complaint Thursday with Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights, according to staff and a file reviewed by WIRED. They accused Amazon of trying to intimidate and illegally retaliate against them for expressing their personal opinion outside of work about the need to regulate the environmental and social impacts of data centers.

“Seattle is one of the few jurisdictions in the country that prohibits private sector employers from discriminating against their employees based on the political beliefs they hold and the organizations they belong to,” says Abe Lawlor, an attorney at Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt who advises employees. “Here, we have the legal tools to fight back and ensure that tech workers can be full democratic participants in these important local discussions. We hope the City of Seattle will do its part to ensure this vital Seattle law is enforced.”

Amazon and Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Amazon spokeswoman Margaret Callahan He previously told WIRED That the company respects employees’ right to express their opinions and that it tries to be a responsible steward in the communities in which it operates.

Amazon employees took to the city’s podium to defend various regulations Seattle is considering imposing on data centers. Amazon does not have an existing or proposed data center in the city, but several other companies have made plans for new projects.

The employees who say they are under investigation — Darius Irani, Liesel Wiegand, and Schlosser — told WIRED that they were separately summoned to virtual meetings with an Amazon employee relations employee last Wednesday. They were told the investigation could take one to two weeks and have not received any updates yet, along with being directed to use a speaker registration form which they feel does not apply to the personal comments they have provided. Schlosser recalls being told that the investigation could lead to his firing.

The three workers contend that Amazon has a pattern of trying to silence the collective action of workers, including… Its warehousesand evading public criticism of data centers by using confidentiality agreements and other methods to shield projects from some scrutiny. Affected workers say they have received many messages of support from colleagues and have not received any internal criticism, except for meetings with human resources.

In statements during public comment periods at three city meetings this month, the workers identified themselves as members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group that includes thousands of current and former workers at the tech giant. Defended for a long time So that the company can better address its role in contributing to climate change.

The employees did not state that they were speaking on behalf of the company, which to their knowledge had not provided any official comment on the data center action in question. Two other Amazon workers who spoke at subsequent City Council meetings say they did not receive notice that they were under investigation.

Schlosser, who has been with Amazon for about six years, and Irani, who has been with the company for more than five years, say they felt compelled to join the growing nationwide movement against building unrestricted data centers for their own reasons, and believe no reasonable person could interpret their statements as representing Amazon.