3 Amazon Workers Say They’re Under Investigation for Speaking Out About Data Centers

三名亚马逊员工称因就数据中心问题公开发声而受到调查

Earlier this month, five current Amazon employees publicly urged Seattle City Council to regulate data centers. It was an unprecedented act of advocacy by tech workers, and now three of the staffers say they are under internal investigation for what they understand to be allegedly representing themselves as spokespeople for the company without prior approval. “It’s a totally ridiculous claim,” says one of the affected employees, Patrick Schloesser. “It’s patently absurd.”

本月初，五名亚马逊在职员工公开敦促西雅图市议会加强对数据中心的监管。这是科技行业员工一次前所未有的倡议行动。目前，其中三名员工表示，他们正受到公司内部调查，原因据他们了解是涉嫌在未经事先批准的情况下，以公司发言人的身份自居。受影响员工之一帕特里克·施洛瑟（Patrick Schloesser）表示：“这是一个完全荒谬的指控，简直不可理喻。”

The three software engineers, who work in different divisions of Amazon and all live in Seattle, believe they are being unfairly targeted for expressing their political beliefs. They filed a joint complaint on Thursday to Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights, according to the employees and a filing seen by WIRED. They accused Amazon of illegally attempting to intimidate and retaliate against them for expressing their personal opinion outside of work about the need to regulate the environmental and social impacts of data centers.

这三名软件工程师分别在亚马逊的不同部门工作，且都居住在西雅图。他们认为自己因表达政治观点而受到了不公正的针对。据这些员工及《连线》（WIRED）看到的一份文件显示，他们已于周四向西雅图民权办公室提交了联合投诉。他们指控亚马逊试图通过非法手段恐吓并报复他们，因为他们在工作之余表达了关于监管数据中心环境和社会影响的个人观点。

“Seattle is one of just a few jurisdictions in the country that prohibits private employers from discriminating against their employees based on the political beliefs they hold and the organizations they belong to,” says Abby Lawlor, an attorney at Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt who is advising the employees. “Here, we have legal tools to fight back and ensure that tech workers can be full democratic participants in these important local discussions. We hope the city of Seattle will do its part to ensure that this vital Seattle law is enforced.”

“西雅图是全美少数几个禁止私营雇主因员工持有的政治信仰及其所属组织而歧视员工的司法管辖区之一，”为这些员工提供咨询的 Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt 律师事务所律师艾比·劳勒（Abby Lawlor）表示，“在这里，我们拥有法律工具进行反击，确保科技工作者能够充分参与到这些重要的本地讨论中。我们希望西雅图市能尽其所能，确保这项至关重要的地方法规得到执行。”

Amazon suspects the employees overstepped by, in its view, speaking about the company’s business without having sought permission. “As we looked more closely at how these employees represented themselves, and how their comments were received by others, it became clear that they may have been speaking in their capacity as Amazonians and not as private citizens,” Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan says. She adds that “we don’t tolerate retaliatory behavior,” and while its investigation is ongoing, Amazon currently has no plans to fire the employees.

亚马逊方面则认为，这些员工在未寻求许可的情况下谈论公司业务，越过了界限。亚马逊发言人玛格丽特·卡拉汉（Margaret Callahan）表示：“当我们更仔细地审视这些员工如何自我定位，以及他们的言论如何被他人解读时，很明显他们可能是在以亚马逊员工的身份，而非普通公民的身份发言。”她补充说，公司“不容忍报复行为”，虽然调查仍在进行中，但亚马逊目前没有解雇这些员工的计划。

The Seattle civil rights office did not respond to a request for comment. The Amazon employees took to the city lectern to advocate for various regulations that Seattle is considering imposing on data centers. Amazon doesn’t have a current or proposed data center in the city, but several other companies have put forth plans for new projects.

西雅图民权办公室未回应置评请求。这些亚马逊员工走上市政厅讲台，倡导西雅图市考虑对数据中心实施的各项监管措施。目前亚马逊在西雅图市内并无现有或拟建的数据中心，但其他几家公司已提出了新的项目计划。

The employees who allege they are under investigation—Darius Irani, Liesel Wigand, and Schloesser—say they were each separately called into virtual meetings with an Amazon employee relations staffer last Wednesday. They were told an investigation may take one to two weeks and have received no updates so far, besides being directed to use a speaker registration form that they don’t feel applies to the personal comments they made. Schloesser recalls being told the probe could lead to being fired.

声称受到调查的三名员工——达里乌斯·伊拉尼（Darius Irani）、莉塞尔·威甘德（Liesel Wigand）和施洛瑟——表示，上周三他们分别被叫去参加了与亚马逊员工关系专员的视频会议。他们被告知调查可能需要一到两周时间，但至今未收到任何进展更新，只是被要求填写一份发言登记表，而他们认为该表格并不适用于他们所发表的个人言论。施洛瑟回忆说，他被告知调查结果可能导致被解雇。

The three workers contend Amazon has a pattern of trying both to silence collective action by workers, including at its warehouses, and dodging public criticism of data centers by using confidentiality agreements and other tactics to shield the projects from some scrutiny. The affected workers say they have received numerous messages of support from colleagues and no internal criticism, aside from in the meetings with HR.

这三名员工认为，亚马逊一贯试图压制员工的集体行动（包括在其仓库中），并通过保密协议和其他策略来规避公众对数据中心的批评，从而使这些项目免受部分审查。受影响的员工表示，除了在与人力资源部门的会议上受到质询外，他们收到了来自同事的大量支持信息，并未受到内部批评。

In remarks during public comment periods at three city meetings this month, the workers identified themselves as members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a collective of thousands of current and former workers at the tech giant that has long awaited for the company to better address its role in contributing to climate change.

在本月的三次市政会议的公众评论环节中，这些员工表明了自己的身份，他们是“亚马逊气候正义员工”（Amazon Employees for Climate Justice）组织的成员。该组织由这家科技巨头的数千名现任和前任员工组成，长期以来一直呼吁公司更好地应对其在气候变化中所扮演的角色。

The employees did not say they were speaking on behalf of the company, which to their knowledge didn’t make any formal comment about the data center measure at issue. Two other Amazon workers who spoke at later city council meetings say they have not received notice that they are under investigation.

这些员工并未声称自己代表公司发言，据他们所知，公司也未就相关数据中心监管措施发表任何正式评论。另外两名在随后的市议会会议上发言的亚马逊员工表示，他们尚未收到被调查的通知。

Schloesser, who has been at Amazon for about six years, and Irani, who has more than five years at the company, say they felt compelled to join the growing nationwide movement against unfettered data center construction for their own reasons and believe no reasonable person could have interpreted their remarks as representing Amazon.

在亚马逊工作了约六年的施洛瑟和工作了五年多的伊拉尼表示，他们出于个人原因，感到有必要加入全国范围内日益增长的反对无限制建设数据中心的运动，并相信任何理性的人都不会将他们的言论解读为代表亚马逊。

“I took the step to be public for the first time because I got sick of feeling afraid to stand up for my values,” Schloesser told the city council last week. “Those of us who work in tech have a role in this moment. We want the council members to include us in the process of developing good, equitable AI and data center policy.”

“我第一次公开站出来，是因为我厌倦了因坚持自己的价值观而感到恐惧，”施洛瑟上周告诉市议会，“我们这些从事科技工作的人在当下肩负着责任。我们希望议员们能让我们参与到制定良好、公平的 AI 和数据中心政策的过程中来。”

Schloesser tells WIRED he spoke at that meeting and an earlier one “to show tech is not a monolith, and there are those of us who have reservations” about what the industry is doing. He describes the unexpected Zoom call with HR as “horrifying,” leaving his heart racing and mind frantic minutes before he needed to give an internal presentation at the office. “I cannot abide by corporations trying to silence employees who are expressing their right to speak politically,” he says. “It’s incredibly dangerous if we allow corporations to do this.”

施洛瑟告诉《连线》，他在那次会议及之前的一次会议上发言，是“为了表明科技界并非铁板一块，我们中也有人对行业的发展持保留意见”。他形容那次突如其来的 HR Zoom 会议“令人恐惧”，让他心跳加速、思绪混乱，而几分钟后他还要在办公室进行内部演示。“我无法容忍企业试图压制行使政治言论权利的员工，”他说，“如果我们允许企业这样做，那将极其危险。”

In his public comments, Irani suggested Seattle could require data centers to use renewable energy and innovative cooling technologies while also contributing to citywide broader citywide initiatives to address climate change. “I should be able to speak out about what’s important to me, and what’s important to me is that Seattle should be regulating AI and data centers, and that’s why I’m reporting Amazon for violating city law” by threatening discipline for his speech, Irani tells WIRED.

在公开评论中，伊拉尼建议西雅图可以要求数据中心使用可再生能源和创新冷却技术，同时为全市应对气候变化的更广泛倡议做出贡献。“我应该能够就对我重要的事情发表意见，而对我来说重要的是西雅图应该监管 AI 和数据中心。这就是为什么我要举报亚马逊违反城市法律，”伊拉尼告诉《连线》，他指责公司因他的言论而威胁对他进行纪律处分。