Three Amazon engineers who spoke out at Seattle City Council hearings say the company pulled them in for follow-up grillings soon after their public testimony. The workers — Patrick Schloesser, Liesl Wigand and Darius Irani — told reporters they were called to meetings with Amazon’s Employee Relations team and pressed on who coordinated their appearance and whether anyone paid them to show up. All of this is unfolding as Seattle fights over whether to hit pause on new large-scale data centers.
According to Bloomberg, the three said the sit-downs happened days after they appeared at City Hall. They described detailed questioning about how their testimony was organized and what compensation, if any, they received. The employees told Bloomberg they believe those conversations could amount to unlawful retaliation under local protections for political speech.
The Seattle City Council has already slammed the brakes on new big-footprint data centers, approving a one-year moratorium while staff study potential impacts on utilities, water usage and nearby neighborhoods, according to the Seattle City Council. The pause gives the city a formal window to map out a workplan on permitting, energy needs and community safeguards before greenlighting future projects…