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Three Amazon software engineers testified this month at Seattle City Council hearings about a moratorium on data centers. Amazon has allegedly retaliated.
After speaking up for regulation on data centers, Seattle activists say they were called into meetings with HR.
When three Amazon software engineers testified earlier this month at Seattle City Council hearings about data centers, they started their testimony by citing a city law barring employment discrimination over political speech. Now, they’re accusing their employer of breaking that law by retaliating against them.
On June 10th — one week after the hearing, and one day after the City Council passed a milestone moratorium on data centers — Patrick Schloesser, Darius Irani, and Liesl Wigand were each called into an impromptu meeting with Amazon’s “Employee Relations.” HR representatives told the employees that the company was investigating them and said there could be disciplinary action, up to and including termination. On Thursday, the three filed a legal complaint requesting that the Seattle Office for Civil Rights investigate the matter, alleging that Amazon engaged in prohibited employment discrimination.
“I am unwilling to accept a reality in which Amazon or any corporation can silence me in exercising my rights,” Schloesser told The Verge in an interview. “We’re not going to step back in line.”
The news comes shortly after Seattle officially enacted a one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers, tabling new proposals while council members consider legislation to award the city more benefits and request research on data center effects on land use, public health, water use, jobs, utility rates, city infrastructure, and more. Earlier this month, many local residents attended Seattle City Council hearings in support of data center regulations and the moratorium. Five Amazon employees — including Schloesser, Irani, and Wigand — were among them.
The five are all members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), a group of current and former employees dedicated to the climate crisis. Last year, the group published an open letter signed by more than 1,000 Amazon employees that urged Amazon to power all its data centers with 100 percent additional, local renewable energy.