Running head: AMAZON RESTRICTS 1 AMAZON RESTRICTS 4 Amazon Restricts Employee Unionization Reginald Whimbush BUS670: Legal Environment Professor Westerman July 8, 2019 Amazon Restricts Employee Unionization Business situation Over the last three years, Amazon’s workforce has grown by over 100% to reach a global workforce of 613,000 employees globally. The e-commerce company also employs an additional 100,000 employees during holiday seasons (Amazon, 2019). Despite the large size of the workforce, Amazon still restricts its employees from joining or forming a union. Unions help to protect the rights of workers and maintain the required ethical standards in human resource management (Mellon & Stevens-Gooden, 2018). Unions also help organizations, especially large organizations such as Amazon, to deal with compliance and governance issues on HR management. There are ethical issues which have been raised against Amazon’s warehouse employees’ low-retention strategy. Amazon’s corporate culture demands for the development of top-tier talent which results in the company setting unreasonably high standards. As the company works towards the deserved growth, some employees’ rights are being suppressed as a sacrifice of achieving the set goals. According to (Parish & Rohlman, 2019), Amazon records an average of 41 severe injuries annually which raises issues on working conditions in the warehouses. As of 2018, Amazon increased its average hourly employee earnings from $13.25 to $15 but eliminated stock awards and monthly bonuses (Streitfeld & Kantor, 2015). The increase was after numerous requests from employees and much criticism by different HR rights organizations. The changes have also been noted to be detrimental to long-term employees of the company because they will make less money (Roberts & Mann, 2015). Non-unionization and low-retention strategy of Amazon employees raises labor ethical and legal issues against the company’s HR management strategies. Ethical theories Deontology Amazon employees, just like other private sector employees, have been given the right to join labor unions by the Federal law. Amazon’s anti-union tactics can be analyzed based on the deontology ethical theory. The duty-based ethical theory will help focus on the individual rights and good intentions of both the employer and employees at Amazon (Musshoff & Jantsch, 2018). The ethical theory will seek to evaluate if there exists any unconditionally good motive in Amazon’s quest for non-unionization as highlighted by (Seaquist & Coulter, 2012) and (Gawronski & Friesdorf, 2016). Amazon needs to have a sense of duty for its employees when it continues to support and implement non-unionization for employees. Deontology ethical theory will evaluate Amazon’s social responsibility on its employees and their dependents which is an ethical requirem ...

1. Running head: AMAZON RESTRICTS
1
AMAZON RESTRICTS 4
Amazon Restricts Employee Unionization
Reginald Whimbush
BUS670: Legal Environment
Professor Westerman
July 8, 2019
Amazon Restricts Employee Unionization
Business situation
Over the last three years, Amazon’s workforce has grown by
over 100% to reach a global workforce of 613,000 employees
globally. The e-commerce company also employs an additional
100,000 employees during holiday seasons (Amazon, 2019).
Despite the large size of the workforce, Amazon still restricts
its employees from joining or forming a union. Unions help to
protect the rights of workers and maintain the required ethical
standards in human resource management (Mellon & Stevens-
Gooden, 2018). Unions also help organizations, especially large
organizations such as Amazon, to deal with compliance and
governance issues on HR management.

2. There are ethical issues which have been raised against
Amazon’s warehouse employees’ low-retention strategy.
Amazon’s corporate culture demands for the development of
top-tier talent which results in the company setting
unreasonably high standards. As the company works towards the
deserved growth, some employees’ rights are being suppressed
as a sacrifice of achieving the set goals. According to (Parish &
Rohlman, 2019), Amazon records an average of 41 severe
injuries annually which raises issues on working conditions in
the warehouses. As of 2018, Amazon increased its average
hourly employee earnings from $13.25 to $15 but eliminated
stock awards and monthly bonuses (Streitfeld & Kantor, 2015).
The increase was after numerous requests from employees and
much criticism by different HR rights organizations. The
changes have also been noted to be detrimental to long-term
employees of the company because they will make less money
(Roberts & Mann, 2015). Non-unionization and low-retention
strategy of Amazon employees raises labor ethical and legal
issues against the company’s HR management strategies.
Ethical theories
Deontology
Amazon employees, just like other private sector employees,
have been given the right to join labor unions by the Federal
law. Amazon’s anti-union tactics can be analyzed based on the
deontology ethical theory. The duty-based ethical theory will
help focus on the individual rights and good intentions of both
the employer and employees at Amazon (Musshoff & Jantsch,
2018). The ethical theory will seek to evaluate if there exists
any unconditionally good motive in Amazon’s quest for non-
unionization as highlighted by (Seaquist & Coulter, 2012) and
(Gawronski & Friesdorf, 2016). Amazon needs to have a sense
of duty for its employees when it continues to support and
implement non-unionization for employees. Deontology ethical
theory will evaluate Amazon’s social responsibility on its

3. employees and their dependents which is an ethical requirement.
Justice ethics
Amazon’s non-unionization calls will also be analyzed under
the justice ethics ethical theory. This ethical theory will help
analyze Amazon’s working condition without working under a
union. The analysis will focus on the ethical standards guiding
employees’ wages and salaries at Amazon. Just compensation is
a right for all employees including those working without union
protection (Seaquist & Coulter, 2012). The justice ethics theory
will help analyze the ethical goal realized by the current
compensation offered by Amazon. Amazon believes non-
unionization is for the best of its customers, shareholder, and
associates (Mazzei & Ravazzani, 2018). The analysis done
based on the justice ethics theory will be based on fairness,
equality, and entitlement of Amazon employees as highlighted
by (Cattero & D’Onofrio, 2018).
Employee labor rights
The analysis on Amazon’s non-unionization calls will be based
on the Weingarten Rights which are under the National Labor
Relations Act of 1935. Though the NLRB, Amazon employees
have a right to union representation (Cullen & Parboteeah,
2013). The analysis will evaluate whether Amazon has engaged
in unfair labor practices because of the non-unionization of its
employees (Jauernig & Luetge, 2014). The practices will be
analyzed based on the recommendations given by the National
Labor Relations Board on the NLRA of 1935, Amazon can be
deemed unethical by discriminating employees for engaging in a
union or concerted activities (Seaquist & Coulter, 2012).
Section 8 of the Act will help in evaluating the ethical standards
maintained by Amazon through non-unionization. The recent
calls by Amazon for unionization is an indication that Amazon
employees could be facing the limitations of non-unionization.
References

4. Amazon. (2019). us-benefits-and-stock. Retrieved from
www.amazon.jobs: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/benefits/us-
benefits-and-stock
Cattero, B., & D’Onofrio, M. (2018). Organizing and Collective
Bargaining in the Digitized “Tertiary Factories” of Amazon: A
Comparison Between Germany and Italy. In B. Cattero, & M.
D’Onofrio, Working in Digital and Smart Organizations (pp.
141-164). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cullen, J. B., & Parboteeah, K. P. (2013). Business ethics.
Routledge.
Gawronski, B., & Friesdorf, R. (2016). Understanding responses
to moral dilemmas: Deontological inclinations, utilitarian
inclinations, and general action tendencies. The social
psychology of morality, 91-110.
Jauernig, J., & Luetge, C. (2014). Business ethics and risk
management. Springer.
Mazzei, A., & Ravazzani, S. (2018). Employee anonymous
online dissent: Dynamics and ethical challenges for employees,
targeted organisations, online outlets, and audiences. Business
Ethics Quarterly, 28(2), 175-201.
Mellon, M. J., & Stevens-Gooden, D. E. (2018). The usefulness
of social norm theory in empirical business ethics research: A
review and suggestions for future research. Journal of Business
Ethics, 152(1), 191-206.
Musshoff, O., & Jantsch, A. (2018). Developing business ethics
theory and integrating economic analysis into business ethics
teaching–a conceptualization based on externalities and
diminishing marginal utility. Review of Social Economy, 76(1),
43-72.
Parish, M., & Rohlman, D. S. (2019). Generalizability of Total
Worker Health® Online Training for Young Workers.
International journal of environmental research and public
health, 16(4), 577.
Roberts, B. S., & Mann, R. A. (2015). Business law and the
regulation of business. Nelson Education.
Seaquist, G., & Coulter, K. (2012). Criminal Law. In G.

5. Seaquist, & K. Coulter, Business law for managers. (pp. 1-43).
Bridgepoint Education.
Streitfeld, D., & Kantor, J. (2015). Inside Amazon: Wrestling
big ideas in a bruising workplace. New York Times, 15, 74-80.
Week 6 LectureThis week deals with a variety of issues from
banking, creditors, environmental laws to intellectual property
laws. This week’s assignments include reading chapters 12-20
of the textbook, two (2) discussion board questions, and a final
paper. As for the discussion boards, I expect you to post your
initial posting by Thursday and respond to at least two (2) of
your classmates posts. I think that the material to be learned in
this class with be useful to every day issues that can arise. As
for the discussion questions, you can use your textbook as a
reference as well as other outside academic references. The
rubic for the discussion boards can be found in the class room.
Please email me with any questions.
Intellectual property is a property right that can be protected
under federal and state law, including copyrightable works,
ideas, discoveries, and inventions. The term intellectual
property relates to intangible property such as patents,
trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
A patent is the right to exclude others from making, using or
selling the invention throughout the United States of America.
In summary, others may not make, use or sell the patented
invention without the authorization of the patent owner. A
patent then, is a limited monopoly granted by the government
for the term period of the patent. After the patent expires,

6. anyone may make, use or sell the invention. The issuance of
patents, trademarks, and copyrights is governed at the federal
level by the standards and regulations of the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office. You will see this often in the
pharmaceutical industry.
Trademarks identify the goods of one manufacturer from the
goods of others. Trademarks are important business assets
because they allow companies to establish their products
reputation without having to worry that an inferior product will
diminish their reputation or profit by deceiving the consumer.
Trademarks include words, names, symbols and logos. The
intent of trademark law is to prevent consumer confusion about
the origin of a product. In the United States trademarks may be
protected by both Federal statute under the Lanham Act, 15
U.S.C. §§ 1051 - 1127, and states' statutory and/or common
laws.
The U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 - 810, is federal
legislation enacted by Congress under its Constitutional grant of
authority to protect the writings of authors. The Copyright Act
now covers architectural design, software, the graphic arts,
motion pictures, and sound recordings. Because federal
legislation invalidates inconsistent state law, the copyright field
is almost exclusively a Federal one. A copyright gives the
owner the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform,
display, or license his work. The owner also receives the
exclusive right to produce or license derivatives of his or her
work. However, there are limited exceptions.
Week 6 Final Paper
Anti-Discrimination Laws Related to Employment
PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT A BID FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT

7. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH GRADUATE
LEVEL WRITING TERMS AND CONCEPTS. ALL
DIRECTIONS MUST BE FOLLOWED, IF THERE IS A
SCENARIO, IT MUST BE INCLUDED. NO PLAGIARISM
WHATSOEVER, MY SCHOOL USES SOFTWARE TO
DETECT COPIED MATERIAL.
Please see the attachment titled – Outline for Final Paper
Prepare an 11- page paper (not including the title and reference
pages) that assesses a legal/ethical issue or situation relating to
a current, previous, or potential future work environment. Use
at least 10 scholarly sources that are suitable for research in a
graduate-level course.
Your paper must include the following:
· A description of a business situation that presents a legal and
ethical issue. The business situation must be from prior, current,
or anticipated future employment experiences or from a current
event. The description of the business situation must not exceed
two pages.
· An analysis of the ethical concerns raised by the situation.
· Apply at least two different ethical theories to the situation to
support at least two different outcomes.
· The paper must determine which ethical outlook as applied to
this particular situation will result in the best legal outcome for
the business.
· An explanation of at least three of the relevant areas of law
that have been addressed in this course (e.g., constitutional law,
contracts, anti-trust law, securities regulations, employment
law, environmental law, crimes, or torts) and an assessment of

8. the each area of law as it applies to the business situation
identified.
· A recommendation to reduce liability exposure and improve
the ethical climate or the overall ethics of the situation. Your
recommendation must be supported by specific legal, ethical,
and business principles.
Writing the Final Paper
The Final Paper:
· Must be 11 to 15 double-spaced pages in length (not including
the title and reference pages), and formatted according to APA
style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
· Must include a title page with the following:
· Title of paper
· Student’s name
· Course name and number
· Instructor’s name
· Date submitted
· Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct
thesis statement which identifies the focus of the paper.
· Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
· Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
· Must use at least 10 scholarly sources.
· Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the
Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate references page, formatted according to
APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center