Amazon workers under internal investigation after speaking out about data centers

Earlier this month, five active Amazon employees made an unprecedented public stand, calling on Seattle’s City Council to enact new regulations for the data center industry. The move marked a rare act of open advocacy by insiders at a major tech company—and now three of those five workers say they are facing internal Amazon investigations over claims they improperly portrayed themselves as official company spokespeople without prior approval.

“This is a totally ridiculous claim,” said Patrick Schloesser, one of the three employees under investigation. “It is patently absurd.”

All three are software engineers working across separate Amazon divisions, and all reside full-time in Seattle. They argue they are being unfairly targeted solely for expressing their personal political beliefs. On Thursday, the trio submitted a joint civil rights complaint to Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights, according to the workers and a copy of the filing reviewed by WIRED. They accuse Amazon of violating local law by attempting to intimidate and retaliate against them for sharing personal opinions about the urgent need to regulate the environmental and social impacts of data center development.

“Seattle is one of just a handful of U.S. jurisdictions that bans private employers from discriminating against workers based on their personal political beliefs and organizational memberships,” said Abby Lawlor, an attorney at Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt who is representing the employees. “Here, we have legal tools to fight back and ensure that tech workers can be full democratic participants in these critical local policy conversations. We hope the city of Seattle will do its part to enforce this vital Seattle law.”

Amazon maintains the workers overstepped company policy by discussing company-related business without seeking prior 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,” said Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan. She added that the company “does not tolerate retaliatory behavior,” and while its investigation remains ongoing, Amazon currently has no plans to terminate the three workers.

The Seattle Office for Civil Rights did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The five Amazon employees spoke from the city council’s public lectern to advocate for a suite of data center regulations that Seattle lawmakers are currently considering. Amazon does not have an existing or proposed data center within Seattle city limits, though several other firms have advanced plans for new local data center projects.

| Got a Tip? |

|---|

| Are you a current or former Amazon employee who wants to share insight into what’s happening at the company? We’d love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, contact the reporter securely via Signal at Peard33.24 |

The three workers under investigation—Darius Irani, Liesel Wigand, and Schloesser—say each was called into a separate virtual meeting with an Amazon employee relations representative last Wednesday. They were told the investigation could take one to two weeks to complete, and have received no updates since. During the meetings, they were directed to use Amazon’s internal speaker registration form for external comments, a requirement the workers say does not apply to the personal remarks they made. Schloesser also recalled being informed the probe could ultimately result in termination.

The three workers contend Amazon has a well-documented pattern of silencing collective worker action—including organizing among its warehouse workforce—and using confidentiality agreements and other tactics to shield data center projects from public scrutiny and avoid criticism of the industry’s impact. Outside of the HR meetings, the affected workers say they have received dozens of messages of support from colleagues, and no internal criticism of their comments beyond what was raised during those meetings.

During public comment periods at three separate city council meetings this month, the workers identified themselves as members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a grassroots collective of thousands of current and former Amazon workers that has long pushed the company to do more to address its contribution to the climate crisis.

The workers never claimed they were speaking on behalf of Amazon, and to their knowledge, the company has not issued any formal public statement on the data center regulation at the center of the debate. The two other original Amazon employees who spoke at subsequent city council meetings say they have not received any notice of internal investigation.

Schloesser, who has worked at Amazon for roughly six years, and Irani, who has been with the company for more than five years, say they felt compelled to join the growing nationwide movement opposing unfettered data center construction for personal reasons, and argue no reasonable person could have interpreted their remarks as representing Amazon’s official position.

“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.”

Speaking to WIRED, Schloesser said 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 described the unexpected Zoom call with HR as “horrifying,” leaving his heart racing and mind frantic just minutes before he was scheduled to give an internal work presentation. “I cannot abide by corporations trying to silence employees who are exercising their right to political speech,” he said. “It’s incredibly dangerous if we allow corporations to get away with this.”

In his public comments, Irani suggested Seattle could require data centers to source renewable energy, adopt innovative low-carbon cooling technologies, and contribute to the city’s broader citywide climate action initiatives. “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. That’s why I’m holding Amazon accountable for violating city law” by threatening discipline for my personal speech, Irani told WIRED.

Data centers have become a major political flash point across the U.S. While they can draw significant economic investment to local communities, soaring demand for AI has sent their power and water consumption growing rapidly. Amazon has developed technologies aimed at reducing the amount of resources its facilities consume, but a growing movement across the country is pushing for new rules to hold Amazon and other major companies accountable to their public environmental goals.

After receiving dozens of supportive comments from members of the public, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a one-year moratorium on new data center construction to give lawmakers time to draft new industry regulations. The measure was passed as an emergency ordinance, giving it immediate effect, and the city’s mayor has confirmed she plans to formally sign off on the policy.

Update 6/18/26 3:40pm EDT: This story has been updated to include comment from Amazon.