本月早些时候，三名亚马逊软件工程师在西雅图市议会关于数据中心的听证会上作证时，开篇即援引该市一项禁止因政治言论而实施就业歧视的法律。如今，他们指控雇主违反该法律，对其施加报复性处罚。6月10日——即听证会结束一周后，[…]

When three Amazon software engineers testified earlier this month at Seattle City Council hearings about data centers, they started their testimony by citing a city law barring employment discrimination over political speech. Now, they're accusing their employer of breaking that law by retaliating against them. On June 10th - one week after the hearing, and […]

在就数据中心监管问题公开发声后，西雅图活动人士称他们被人力资源部门召去谈话。 在就数据中心监管问题公开发声后，西雅图活动人士称他们被人力资源部门召去谈话。 本月早些时候，三名亚马逊软件工程师在西雅图市议会关于数据中心的听证会上作证。他们在证词开头援引了一项西雅图市法律——该法禁止因政治言论而实施就业歧视。如今，他们指控雇主违反了这项法律，对他们进行了报复。 “我无法接受这样一种现实：亚马逊或任何一家企业都能压制我行使自身权利。”施勒瑟（Schloesser）在接受《The Verge》采访时表示，“我们不会退让、重新归队。” 施勒瑟称，会后他感到“相当震惊”。他还表示：“我们三人共同感受到一种愤慨与愤怒——在经历了这家公司的种种之后，我们只是作出了一个毫无争议的表态，即作为西雅图市雇员，我们依法享有政治表达权。” 伊拉尼（Irani）表示：“那次会谈结束后，我感到心神不宁、自我怀疑；但当我与其他两位参与作证的AECJ成员交流后，发现他们也遭遇了类似经历，我便开始感到愤怒——因为我所做的，不过是表达了‘人工智能与数据中心应受监管’这一观点。” “看到社区被排除在外，并因当前这轮数据中心建设而承受诸多后果与伤害，我深感不安。”他说道，“社区理应有权决定此类基础设施如何部署。因此，我为出庭作证感到自豪。” 据《西雅图时报》报道，在西雅图市议会就暂停数据中心建设的议案进行表决前两个月，四家身份未公开的公司已向市内提交了五座大型数据中心的建设计划。这些项目合计最大电力需求相当于西雅图市单日平均用电量的三分之一，其耗电量将是该市现有数据中心总耗电量的十倍。

After speaking up for regulation on data centers, Seattle activists say they were called into meetings with HR. After speaking up for regulation on data centers, Seattle activists say they were called into meetings with HR. When three Amazon software engineers testified earlier this month at Seattle City Council hearings about data centers, they started their testimony by citing a city law barring employment discrimination over political speech. Now, they’re accusing their employer of breaking that law by retaliating against them. “I am unwilling to accept a reality in which Amazon or any corporation can silence me in exercising my rights,” Schloesser told The Verge in an interview. “We’re not going to step back in line.” Schloesser said he felt “kind of horrified” after the meeting. He added, “We all harnessed this sense of indignation and anger that after everything we’ve gone through at this company, and after making a very uncontroversial statement where we’re simply exercising our rights to speak out politically as employees in the city of Seattle.” “I left this meeting feeling rattled and unsure of myself, but after speaking with the other two AECJ members who gave testimony, to find that they’d faced similar experiences, then I started feeling angry — because all I was doing was sharing my opinion that AI and data centers should be regulated,” Irani said. “It really makes me upset how communities have been excluded and are facing so many consequences and harms from how this buildout has been done,” he said. “Communities should have a say in how [data center] infrastructure is rolled out. So I was proud to testify.” Two months before the Seattle City Council voted on the moratorium, four unknown companies had submitted proposals for five large-scale data centers within the city limits, which would, combined, have a maximum electricity demand that equaled one-third of Seattle’s average use on a given day — and would use 10 times more power than the city’s current number of data centers, according to The Seattle Times.