Amazon has been ordered to reinstate a worker who was fired after leading a protest over working conditions at a Staten Island warehouse in the early days of the Covid pandemic.
Gerald Bryson, who worked at an Amazon warehouse on New York’s Staten Island known as JFK8, helped lead the protest in April 2020. Bryson got into a dispute with another worker while protesting outside the facility.
In a video live-streamed on Facebook, Bryson and the employee exchanged profanities and were in disagreement about whether the warehouse should be shut down for disinfection. Bryson was later fired for violating Amazon’s vulgar-language policy, while the other employee received a written warning.
Bryson in 2020 filed an unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing Amazon retaliated against him, and later that year, the NLRB determined the complaint had merit. Last month, the NLRB took up Bryson’s case and agreed that he was fired in retaliation for protesting safety conditions.
On Monday, administrative law judge Benjamin Green agreed and said Amazon must offer Bryson his job back, as well as any lost wages and benefits “resulting from his discriminatory discharge.”
