Amazon fired workers for organizing

Quoting the New York Times of April 19th 2020. Emily Cunningham lost her job at Amazon. Her firing, she said, came hours after her organization, Amazon employees for climate justice, sent out an invitation to colleagues to a virtual meeting about company issues.

On April 12, two Amazon employees who has been outspoken about the company’s climate change policies and, more recently warehouse conditions said they had been fired. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, both user experience designers, said their dismissals came hours after their organization, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, sent out an invitation to a virtual meeting during which interested employees could hear directly from Amazon warehouses workers.

“If Amazon is actually keeping people safe, why are they so afraid for us to hear from people in warehouses?” Ms Cunningham said. “They are trying to silence us from talking to the media, but they are also trying to silence us internally.”

Amazon fired Christian Smalls, a Staten Island warehouse worker who had been active in demanding coronavirus protections. Amazon said he was terminated for “putting the health and safety of others at risk,”, not for organizing.

Firing workers for labor organizing is illegal, and there was a quick backlash. New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, called the firing “disgraceful” as well as “immoral and inhumane”.

A bigger uproar can when Vice News obtained notes that David Zapolsky, Amazon’s general counsel, took during a meeting of Amazon’s top executives, including Mr. Bezos. Mr Zapolsky discussed how Mr. Small could be portrayed as “not smart or articulate “ to weaken the organizing movement.

Washington Post : Amazon fires two tech workers who criticized the company’s workplace conditions