Complaints alleging Amazon infringed on workers’ rights to unionize more than tripled in the last year, per a new report

• There's been a big uptick in complaints of Amazon getting in the way of workers' rights to organize.
• In the past year of the pandemic, at least 37 complaints have been filed, NBC News reports.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

The National Labor Review Board has seen more than three times the number of complaints against Amazon in the past year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

The news outlet spoke to workers who felt the company had retaliated against them for attempting to organize, some of whom have NLRB complaints active. The report found that, since February of 2020, there were at least 37 filed against the retail and tech giant alleging anti-union activity that infringed on workers' rights.

The number of complaints amounts to more than three times the complaints in 2019 and over six times the complaints in 2018, per NBC. Walmart, for comparison, received eight complaints during the period from February 2020 to February 2021, NBC reported.

One analyst that Insider's Kate Taylor spoke to about the Amazon unionization effort in Alabama compared Amazon and Walmart, saying "Amazon is just kind of following the course that was charted by Walmart" when it comes to anti-union activity.

But the disparity in NLRB complaints in the past year points to Amazon's increasing scrutiny on workers who are trying to organize as the company charts an unprecedented union vote in its Bessemer, Alabama fulfillment center.