Amazon workers in the US now face fewer hurdles to organise

Amazon.com Inc. workers across the country now face fewer hurdles to organize against their employer under a settlement the company reached with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board.

The agreement requires Amazon to inform past and current workers of their rights and ensures that it can’t interfere with labor organizing on company property after hours. The settlement was finalized on Wednesday, which happened to coincide with a union-organizing effort in New York City that same day.

The settlement is “very powerful” because it specifically prohibits practices Amazon has used to make it more difficult for workers to organize, including limiting their time on company property when they aren’t working, said Janice Fine, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University. Organizing on work sites when employees are gathered together with people they know and trust can be more galvanizing than out-of-town activists knocking on people’s doors at home, she said.