Amazon.com must pursue a challenge to the National Labor Relations Board’s structure in a Washington, D.C., court rather than in Texas, a federal judge in San Antonio has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in a decision issued Sunday rejected Amazon’s claims that its lawsuit stemming from a union election at a New York City warehouse had sufficient ties to Texas, where three other judges have recently ruled that the NLRB’s structure likely violates the U.S. Constitution.
Rodriguez also refused to block the NLRB from deciding in an underlying administrative case whether Amazon must bargain with the union at the Staten Island warehouse known as JFK8. The judge said the company had failed to show that it would face irreparable harm if the board issued a ruling.
The NLRB had sought to move Amazon’s lawsuit filed earlier in September to a New York federal court in whose district the warehouse is located. Rodriguez, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, said the case belongs in Washington, D.C, because the board will decide Amazon’s case from its headquarters there.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. An NLRB spokeswoman declined to comment.
The ruling is a setback in Amazon’s bid to stop the NLRB from ordering the company to bargain with the first union in its history. The labor board in August upheld the results of the election at JFK8, rejecting Amazon’s claims that it was tainted by demonstrations held by workers and union organizers and that board officials who oversaw the voting were biased toward the union.
Amazon is likely to appeal the ruling to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is widely considered the most conservative federal appeals court. The three Texas judges who recently ruled against the NLRB all cited a 2022 5th Circuit decision involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has a similar structure to the labor board.
Amazon on Friday had already asked the 5th Circuit to step in, arguing that Rodriguez’s delay in deciding its motion to block an NLRB ruling amounted to a “constructive denial.”
The company said the case should remain in Texas because at least four former employees at JFK8 now live in the state, and because part of the underlying board case was processed by an NLRB office in Arizona that covers parts of Texas.
Rodriguez stayed his decision until any appeal by Amazon is resolved.
Amazon’s lawsuit is one of about 20 filed against the NLRB since last year arguing that the agency’s in-house enforcement proceedings violate the U.S. Constitution. Judges in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Detroit and Connecticut have rejected bids by other employers to block NLRB cases against them.
Amazon and the other businesses suing the board have argued that the agency’s administrative judges, who hear cases alleging illegal labor practices, and five board members who review the judges’ rulings are improperly shielded from being removed at will by the U.S. president.
The companies have also argued that board proceedings violate their right to a jury trial and the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution.
The case is Amazon.com Services v. NLRB, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 5:24-cv-1000.
For Amazon: Kurt Larkin and Amber Rogers of Hunton Andrews Kurth
For the NLRB: Tyler Wiese, Christine Flack and Michael Dale
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