Bulletins

Mapbox sued by labor regulators for firing union organizers​

The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Mapbox demanding that it reinstate union organizers who were dismissed last year after the failed unionization vote.

Mapbox Workers Union logo

Mapbox has been accused of retaliating against union organizers by the National Labor Relations Board.

Image: Mapbox Workers Union

Mapbox has just been slapped with a complaint from the National Labor Relations Board that alleges the company's leadership threatened job loss in retaliation for union organizing and then fired union organizers after the unionization vote failed last summer.

The complaint, reviewed by Protocol, is based on charges filed by the Communication Workers of America, the national union that represented Mapbox leaders in the oft-vicious and failed unionization effort last summer. The Mapbox union effort, while originally supported by about two-thirds of workers when it was first announced in June 2021, failed by a margin of more than 40 votes in August 2021 after the company spent months arguing that the union could hurt future investment and divide the domestic and international workforce.

Current and former Mapbox workers told Protocol this week that the company's anti-union effort squelched its culture of openness and easy communication, and they blamed the effort for the departure of hundreds of workers in 2021.

The charge from NLRB attorneys asks that union organizers Heather Scott, Trevor Specht and Kara Mahoney be reinstated and given back pay and compensation for damages. The NLRB has little power to impose monetary fines or other damages, but it can usually demand "in-kind" actions from the company as recourse for illegal behavior. The company has until June 28 to reply to the complaint, and a hearing has been set for October 3 if no settlement is reached.

Mapbox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 Anna Kramer

Anna Kramer is a reporter at Protocol (Twitter: @ anna_c_kramer, email: akramer@protocol.com), where she writes about labor and workplace issues. Prior to joining the team, she covered tech and small business for the San Francisco Chronicle and privacy for Bloomberg Law. She is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she studied International Relations and Arabic and wrote her senior thesis about surveillance tools and technological development in the Middle East.

mapbox unions unionization union busting nlrb cwa
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Bulletins