Amazon.com Wins Injunction Blocking New York Labor Law

A federal judge granted Amazon.com (AMZN, Financials) a preliminary injunction blocking New York from enforcing a state law that would allow its Public Employment Relations Board to hear private-sector labor disputes while the National Labor Relations Board remains without a quorum.

The ruling marks the first legal test of the law, which was signed in September to address a backlog of hundreds of cases at the federal agency.

Judge Eric Komitee of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn said Amazon is likely to succeed on the argument that federal labor law bars states from intervening, citing a 1959 Supreme Court precedent.

He wrote that Congress anticipated occasional lapses in the NLRB's quorum and that New York cannot step in to fill the gap. The judge also said Amazon could face irreparable harm from inconsistent rulings between state and federal bodies.

New York's attorney general, who represented the state agency, did not comment on the decision. Amazon also did not respond to inquiries ahead of the holiday.

The case stems from the firing of Brima Sylla, a union vice president at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, the company's only unionized U.S. facility. PERB had moved to review the dispute after the NLRB's backlog grew following the removal of Democratic board member Gwynne Wilcox earlier this year.