Senators demand answers about Amazon firing activist employees

Nine liberal U.S. senators question Amazon leaders about the dismissal of several activists who spoke about allegedly unsafe storage conditions during the reporting period the coronavirus pandemic.

The nine senators sent one Letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon asked Wednesday for more details on the company’s disciplinary and dismissal policies, and mentioned four workers who were fired “after their public whistleblowing.”

The legislators, some of whom are often Amazon critics, are Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, Edward Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Kamala Harris and Tammy Baldwin.

“Given the clear public history of advocacy for these four workers on behalf of the health and safety conditions for workers in Amazon camps before their dismissal,” the letter said, “and Amazon’s vague public statements of ‘internal policy’ violations. We are looking for additional information to understand exactly what these internal guidelines are. “

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Amazon defended the shots on Thursday, naming them unrelated and isolated incidents.

“These people were not fired because they spoke publicly about working conditions or safety, but because they had repeatedly violated policies such as intimidation, physical distance, and more,” a spokesman for Amazon said in a statement. “We support the right of all employees to criticize or protest their employers ‘working conditions. However, this does not involve full immunity to all internal guidelines. We look forward to explaining this in more detail in our response to the Senators’ letter. ”

Amazon is under enormous pressure from its workers and elected officials during the pandemic. Employees have held several demonstrations in the past two months, and lawmakers have repeatedly questioned Amazon’s security practices. Add to these criticisms Tim Bray, a prominent engineer and vice president of Amazon, gave up a week ago to protest these layoffs, saying it was clear that they were “whistleblowing” on the pitch.

Amazon has often defended its efforts to protect its hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers, citing temperature controls, thorough cleaning, and the provision of masks and gloves. Bezos said last week that his company was planning to spend money $ 4 billion this quarter for additional protection and test functions.

However, dozens of its camps have confirmed and coronavirus cases four warehouse employees According to media reports confirmed by the company, they have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Amazon has refused to disclose the total number of coronavirus cases and deaths related to its employees’ coronaviruses.

Among the employees were the senators named in their letter Christian Smalls, who was fired in late March after organizing a protest in his warehouse on Staten Island on the same day. The company said he was released for violating a paid quarantine order. A few days later, Vice reported that Amazon’s top lawyer David Zapolsky criticized Smalls in a leaked memo, saying Smalls was “not smart or articulate”.

Booker, Brown, Gillibrand, Blumenthal and Senator Bob Menendez sent a similar letter Express concerns about Smalls’ shot a month ago. New York attorney general Letitia James said in late April that Amazon may have violated state whistleblower laws when it released Smalls.

In mid-April there was news that Amazon fired two technicians. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa and Bashir Mohamed, a warehouse employee in Minnesota. All three were mentioned in the letter from the senators.

According to Amazon, Cunningham and Costa were fired for “violating internal policies, including our advertising policies, using corporate resources to solicit money and signatures from their peers.” The women, both leaders of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice activist group, said they shared an invitation to a virtual employee meeting to discuss storage conditions. They were fired soon after. Mohamed, who was involved in workers’ demonstrations, was released for “progressive disciplinary action due to inappropriate language / behavior”.

CNET reported in late April Gerald Bryson, another employee of the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, who was involved in the protests there and was released for alleged harassment and inappropriate language. The Wall Street Journal reported the termination of Courtney Bowdenwho pushed for paid free time for part-time workers.

Also on Thursday, Amazon employees and several employee interest groups said they had given Bezos and Amazon CEO Jay Carney thousands of signatures and called for a policy to be restored to allow workers to adopt them unlimited unpaid free time during the health crisis. The policy ended on May 1, and workers are now required to apply for personal or medical leave.

In addition, Democratic MP David Cicilline said Thursday that if necessary Subpoena Bezos testify about antitrust concerns about his company. Bezos, he said, seemed to be dragging his feet as he committed to appear before Congress.