CINCINNATI — Some workers at the Amazon Air Hub (KCVG) in northern Kentucky continue to say they’re underpaid and work in poor conditions.

For more than a year, they’ve been trying to organize a Teamsters union. But they say Amazon has been illegally interfering with those efforts. Now they’re taking their arguments to court.

Workers from the Teamsters organizing committee at KCVG met outside the offices of the National Labor Relations Board in Cincinnati Monday. Over the next week or so, their lawyers will be making the case to the board that Amazon has been illegally stifling workers’ efforts to unionize.

Air hub employee Marcio Rodriguez has been involved in those efforts from the start.

“The intimidation, the surveillance and everything they have done. The illegal write ups as well that they have put me on. Final written warnings, which they put 11 workers on. We need the NLRB to do something about it today, so we can continue legally being able to organize our union,” Rodriguez said. “They’re kind of using the carrot and the stick technique. Some workers they get the carrot, some workers they give the stick, where they’re writing them up, constantly asking questions and surveilling them.”

Rodriguez said things have only gotten more contentious at work over the last few months.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to Amazon for comment on this trial, and was sent the same statement the company has repeatedly sent in response to organizing efforts from spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis:

“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have. We favor opportunities for each person to be respected and valued as an individual, and to have their unique voice heard by working directly with our team. The fact is, amazon already offers what many unions are requesting: competitive pay, health benefits on day one, and opportunities for career growth. We look forward to working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”

According to the organizing committee, Amazon’s violations include telling workers they were not allowed to share pro-union literature with their co-workers, threatening to discipline and call law enforcement against union supporters, and surveilling workers engaged in union activity.

David Thornsberry, an organizer with Teamsters Local 89, was among those to show up in support of workers.

He said his hope for the trial was: “Amazon stops breaking the law and respects their workers’ right under the National Labor Relations Act to organize. We want to make sure that Amazon workers get what they have coming to them, which is the form of a strong union contract that addresses wages and working conditions.”

Recently, a federal judge ruled the teamsters are allowed to picket the air hub without interference. So regardless of what happens in court, the fight will continue.

“We’re seeing our numbers continue to grow. More people every day are getting emboldened because of the way Amazon treats them,” Rodriguez said.

Committee members say the trial could go on for the better part of the week, and then it could still be another few weeks before they learn the result.