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Amazon, a company that employs more than 1.54 million people, has claimed that the National Labor Relations Board Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency responsible for protecting the rights of workers, is unconstitutional. Amazon made the claim in a legal document filed on Thursday as part of a case in which prosecutors from the Board have accused the e-commerce giant of discrimination against workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island who had voted to unionize, according<\/a> to The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n Amazon is not the first company to challenge the Board\u2019s constitutionality. Last month, Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX sued the NLRB after the agency accused the company of unlawfully firing eight employees and called the agency \u201cunconstitutional\u201d in the lawsuit. Weeks later, grocery chain Trader Joe\u2019s, which the NLRB accused of union-busting, said that the NLRB\u2019s structure and organization was \u201cunconstitutional,\u201d Bloomberg<\/em> reported<\/a>. And in separate lawsuits, two Starbucks baristas have independently challenged the agency\u2019s structure as they sought to dissolve their unions.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s claim is similar to the existing claims filed by SpaceX and Trader Joe\u2019s. In the lawsuit, the company\u2019s lawyers argued that \u201cthe structure of the N.L.R.B. violates the separation of powers\u201d by \u201cimpeding the executive power provided for in Article II of the United States Constitution.\u201d In addition, Amazon claimed that the NLRB\u2019s hearings \u201ccan seek legal remedies beyond what\u2019s allowed without a trial by jury.\u201d<\/p>\n Seth Goldstein, a lawyer who represents unions in the Amazon and Trader Joe\u2019s cases told<\/a> Reuters<\/em> that these challenges to the NLRB increase the chances of the issue reaching the Supreme Court. And they might cause employers to stop bargaining with unions in hope that courts will finally strip the federal agency of its powers, Goldstein said. Amazon has a contentious history with the NLRB, which said<\/a> the company broke federal labor laws last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n