June 19, 2026

Amazon Is Investigating the Engineers Who Testified Against Its Data Centres

Amazon is investigating three of its engineers after they testified before the Seattle City Council last month in support of a moratorium on new AI data centre construction. This is a move the employees’ lawyers say violates a local ordinance protecting workers’ political beliefs.

The five Amazon engineers who testified are members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ). This is a long-running internal advocacy group that has pressed the company on environmental commitments and workforce practices for several years.

Following their appearance at public hearings, three workers were separately invited to Zoom meetings with a human resources representative. The rep said he was investigating a concern raised about their testimony. The employees were informed that the investigation could lead to disciplinary action. One staffer says they were told that the potential discipline could range up to termination.

A civil rights complaint was subsequently filed with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights. It alleged Amazon breached a city ordinance that bars employers from discriminating against employees on the grounds of political ideology.

The Seattle City Council had voted unanimously on 9 June to impose a one-year emergency moratorium on new large data centres inside the city limits. This followed public hearings at which residents, engineers, and community groups testified overwhelmingly in favour of the pause. Amazon and Microsoft, both headquartered in Seattle, are directly affected.

“This Culture Is Omnipresent Across Tech”

The engineers’ objections were pointed. Liesl Wigand, a senior software engineer with more than 12 years at Amazon, told the council that the company’s approach amounted to an “all-costs-justified AI build-out.” “The biggest issue is a belief that AI should be how we solve everything, while ignoring the resources that it costs,” she said. “This culture is omnipresent across tech.”

Wigand added:

“The biggest issue is a belief that AI should be how we solve everything, while ignoring the resources that it costs. This culture is omnipresent across tech.”

Darius Irani, another of the engineers, was brief and unapologetic. “All I did was testify because I believe it’s critical that the government regulates data centres and AI. Workers need to be involved in these conversations.”

Amazon’s position draws a distinction between employees speaking as private citizens and those perceived to speak on the company’s behalf. Spokesperson Margaret Callahan said Amazon does not permit staff to represent the company publicly without following specific procedures. She stated that the investigation followed concern that the engineers may have been seen as speaking “in their capacity as Amazonians and not as private citizens.”

Callahan’s statement reads:

“We believe it’s important to apply our policies consistently so, just as we would with anyone else, we’re investigating whether there was a violation of our policies and may or may not take action based on what we find.”

Callahan disputed that termination had been threatened and said Amazon does not tolerate retaliatory behaviour. The engineers’ lawyers allege that Amazon was monitoring their political advocacy before the Seattle City Council and was seeking to identify additional employees who had engaged in political activities.

This is not the first time AECJ has been here. US labour officials previously found Amazon had retaliated illegally when it fired two of the group’s founders in 2020 for speaking out on environmental and warehouse safety issues. Amazon settled that case in 2021.

A Wider Reckoning for Tech Companies and AI Data Centre Approval and Regulation

The case is emblematic of a broader moment in the relationship between tech companies, their workers, the data centres these businesses are building, and the communities in which they want to build them. Amazon has committed to spending up to $200 billion on capital expenditure in 2026, most of it on AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, it has simultaneously cut 30,000 corporate jobs since October. AECJ has repeatedly called on the company to “get real about the costs of AI and the guardrails we need.”

Public sentiment is moving in the same direction as the engineers. A Gallup poll conducted in March 2026 found that seven in 10 Americans oppose AI data centres in their local area. This includes 48% who are strongly opposed. The same survey found that only 53% of Americans oppose nuclear power plants locally. Essentially, AI data centres are now a harder sell to communities than nuclear facilities. In 2025 alone, more than 200 bills were introduced across all 50 US states aimed at regulating data centres, with more than 40 enacted into law. That legislative momentum is accelerating.