Amazon retaliated against workers who supported data center regulation, the complaint says

Amazon illegally retaliated against three of its employees for publicly testifying that Seattle should regulate data centers, according to a complaint filed Thursday with the city’s Office of Civil Rights.

The complaint was filed on behalf of the workers by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, an independent group of Amazon corporate employees that has been organizing around climate issues since 2018. She said the company has opened an investigation and told employees they could face disciplinary action, in one case termination, in an act of intimidation that violates the city’s civil rights protections against discrimination based on political beliefs.

Five Amazon tech workers affiliated with Amazon Employees for Climate Justice testified at several different hearings before the Seattle City Council and two of its committees. Their testimony in the company’s hometown drew national attention and put the tech giant in the awkward position of responding to public criticism of data centers and artificial intelligence by its own employees.

Patrick Schloesser, who has worked as a software engineer at Amazon Web Services since 2020, said in an interview with The New York Times that Amazon told him last week that he was under investigation when he was invited to a meeting without prior notice. In early June, he testified at two city council meetings.

“I had a growing sense of anger that Amazon was trying to infringe on my rights to speak politically in my city,” he said. “If we allow corporations to decide what speech is or isn’t allowed, it’s absolutely damaging to democracy.”

Amazon did not have an immediate comment Thursday morning.

Data center construction is facing significant pressure across the country as the technology industry races to build enough capacity to meet demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

Seattle is among the communities considering whether to limit that growth. The city has had small data centers for years, but their development became a political issue in April, according to The Seattle Times reported that four developers approached the city utility about building five larger data centers in the city.

These are still very small compared to the massive AI computing complexes that Amazon and others are building around the country, but they would be much larger than what was already in the city.

The City Council held a series of hearings on how to address data centers.

Amazon employees testified that Seattle should consider conditions for permitting new data centers, such as requiring new renewable energy sources, prohibiting the use of non-disclosure agreements between the city and developers and limiting public subsidies. They offered to help create new rules based on their experience as technical staff.

“Seattle needs to set the stage so that the way any new data centers are built here actually moves us closer to the future that we want,” Darius Irani, who has been working as a software engineer at Amazon’s grocery store since 2021, said at a hearing before the Parks and Cities Committee.

He proposed requiring public reporting of water and energy use, banning shell companies and using the heat emitted from chips in data centers to heat nearby buildings.

Amazon told news organizations at the time that it respected “the right of our colleagues to express their opinion” and that the company had no plans to build data centers in the city.

On June 9, the council voted unanimously to put a one-year moratorium on new large data centers to allow time to develop regulations.

The next day, an Amazon employee met with the three workers in one-on-one meetings and told them they were being investigated for their testimony, according to the complaint. Mr. Irani said he was questioned repeatedly about his testimony and who else at Amazon was present at the hearing.

“It feels like they said one thing publicly and tried to silence me and keep me confidential, which I think is wrong,” Irani said.

He and Mr. Schloesser said they were incredulous when the company told them it was investigating whether they had violated the company’s corporate communications policy by falsely impersonating Amazon spokespeople.

“It’s absolutely absurd,” Mr. Schloesser said. “I don’t think anyone would think I’m a spokesperson for Amazon.”

They and other employees began their testimony with the same line: “I am proud to live in a city where employees who speak out politically are legally protected from retaliation by their employers,” a reference to the city’s civil rights laws.

“We’ve been very judicious in how we’ve talked about making sure we stay within those protections,” Mr. Schloesser said. “We’ve just made general statements that we support the government’s right to regulate data centers and AI.”

The complaint asks the Seattle Office for Civil Rights to investigate the claims. If, as part of the process, the department finds “reasonable cause” that discrimination occurred, it will give the parties a week to reach a settlement.

If they don’t agree, the office will refer the case to the city attorney’s office to go to an administrative law judge, who can impose various forms of monetary or procedural relief.