Senators Demand to Know Why Amazon is Firing COVID-19 Whistleblowers

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Large corporations have a long history of silencing dissonance. The truth is, many people work where they do less out of choice, and more out of necessity. Someone could hate that a company like Nestle makes water a scarcity in some parts of the world, just to bottle it up and sell it to other parts of the world. But when a factory moves into town promising the wages they need to pay their increasing rent and expenses, they go to the bottling plant. When faced with a lack of options, they try their best to make their company better.

The same goes for Amazon. I remember when an Amazon warehouse was moving in to my little town. Many people looked at the wages they were offering and thought it would be a good step for them. For many, they quickly found out that terrible conditions meant those wages came at a price. But, higher rents, new cars, or a family to support meant they weren’t going anywhere soon.

With COVID-19, much of business has gone online. Delivery food, delivery packages, even groceries, delivered. It all comes from somewhere. Often, that place is a warehouse full of overworked and underpaid workers. Many in close quarters.

For obvious reasons, Amazon doesn’t want consumers thinking about this. They don’t want you remembering that Amazon workers are overworked, with compromised immune systems. They want you to forget that many carry bottles of urine, because there’s no time for pee breaks or hand washing. Amazon wants you thinking of goods coming from their warehouse as safer than going to the department store. But they’re not backing those desires up with appropriate actions. That’s why so many Amazon employees have spoken out about the conditions.

That’s also why Amazon has silenced all of them.

Now senators want to know why.

Amazon’s COVID-19 Whistleblowers

Two Amazon employees were already on thin ice with the company. They were user experience (UX) designers working for the technical side of Amazon. Maren Costa and Emily Cunningham spoke out against Amazon’s lousy environmental aspects. However, what got them fired was an outreach program to Amazon’s warehouse employees.

Amazon desperately silos their tech employees away from the warehouse employees the company relies on. While many tech workers at Amazon have reported toxic conditions that cause them to be in constant competition with their coworkers, Amazon did at least treat them right when COVID-19 threatened to ravage their offices. When one employee got sick, all in the office were made aware and sent to work from home. The same was not true of the warehouses. Amazon forced their warehouse workers into the same lousy conditions they had been working in. They weren’t alerted when people got sick. As Amazon wasn’t distributing personal protective equipment (PPE), illness spread. People died.

While Amazon cannot be blamed for just how deadly this disease is, they can certainly take the blame for putting so many people needlessly in harm’s way. All for the sake of appearing to be a safe way to get our products. By keeping employees in the dark, they didn’t know what Amazon would be willing to do for other employees.

Warehouse Employees Question Conditions

Of course, those warehouse employees aren’t ignorant. They know how Amazon functions perhaps better than anyone else. They know that Amazon has always been willing to risk their health for the bottom line. Chris Smalls, formerly of Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse, noticed that workers were in close quarters, and weren’t getting the equipment, policies, or protections they needed.

Smalls became the face of a movement to improve conditions at his warehouse. He appeared on the news, speaking about a protest he was a part of. Amazon fired him. They said he broke their quarantine rules. However, that’s the very thing Smalls was protesting, that Amazon wasn’t protecting employees. They weren’t allowing employees to safely distance. Other workers had the same exposure to sick workers he did, but, because he protested, Amazon singled him out. The rest were forced to continue working.

Bashir Mohamed worked in a warehouse in Minnesota. He simply called for safety measure improvements. Nothing drastic, just measures to allow him and his coworkers to continue doing their job without unnecessary exposure to the virus. Amazon fired him as well. According to Mohamed, “They fired me to make others scared.”

According to Amazon, that’s exactly what they wanted.

Amazon Goes After Smalls

A memo leaked from within Amazon leadership. A meeting that Jeff Bezos attended included methods to quell these protests and protect Amazon’s image during this time. Of course, the easy solution would be to create safe working conditions, solving both the public relations issue as well as the worker safety problems. They instead decided to go after Chris Smalls. Amazon’s General Counsel David Zapolsy stated that Smalls was, “not smart or articulate.” He wanted the press to focus on the idea that this was Amazon vs. Smalls, instead of Amazon vs. their workers, because Smalls would be an easier target. He believed  Amazon would “be in a much stronger PR position.” This was instead of explaining what Amazon was doing, likely because doing so would show clear gaps in their measures.

“In New York, the right to organize is codified into law, and any retaliatory action by management related thereto is strictly prohibited. At a time when so many New Yorkers are struggling and are deeply concerned about their safety, this action was also immoral and inhumane.”

– New York Attorney General Leticia James, commenting on the firing of Chris Smalls

Fired for a Sick Day

Other workers took part in a planned protest against Amazon’s new policies. Office and warehouse workers united in a planned sick day, where they’d all stay home or offline for a day. Prior to the protest, Amazon pulled unlimited vacation for tech employees, so they could be fired if they didn’t have the time off for the protest. They also lifted the policy enacted specifically for COVID-19 that allowed workers to stay home, with pay, if they thought they were sick. They fired at least six employees as a result of the protests, including Maren Costa and Emily Cunningham.

Senior Engineer and VP Quits

“…remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised. So I resigned.”

– Tim Bray, former Amazon VP

This was all too much for one AWS senior engineer and VP. AWS may be Amazon’s most important product. It’s Amazon’s business to business service, which includes data hosting, computational services, machine learning modules, and more. Many businesses rely on AWS to function, and Amazon relies on its success. But an experienced AWS engineer and VP realized Amazon’s toxic atmosphere had accelerated. Now lives were at risk.

“The victims weren’t abstract entities but real people; here are some of their names: Courtney Bowden, Gerald Bryson, Maren Costa, Emily Cunningham, Bashir Mohammed, and Chris Smalls.”

“I’m sure it’s a coincidence that every one of them is a person of color, a woman, or both. Right?”

– Tim Bray, former Amazon VP

Tim Bray resigned, calling Amazon “Chickenshit” for creating a culture “designed to create a climate of fear.” He quit directly in response to firings related to unsafe conditions, and the fact that the company dedicated resources to disparaging those who organized protests.

Amazon’s Response

Amazon has claimed that workers were fired for spreading false information about the company, or for violating social distancing policies. But leaks from within, including the damning meeting notes, show that this is part of Amazon’s campaign to disparage dissenters. Most recently, they’ve tried to claim that workers violated policies related to social distancing. However, some of the first people they fired were UX designers who were likely working from home and organized online protests and discussions. Their only crime was organizing. Not only is that not a crime, it’s also a protected right of employees.

“These individuals were not terminated for talking publicly about working conditions or safety, but rather, for violating—often repeatedly—policies, such as intimidation, physical distancing and more.”

– From an Amazon response sent to Engadget

A History of Retaliation

Amazon might have a leg to stand on if not for the fact that they have a long history of retaliation against employees who speak out about lousy conditions. Amazon shows employees training videos that can only be described as corporate propaganda, made to show employees that they will be fired if they attempt to organize. Between Amazon’s history and the leaked meeting notes, it’s clear the company wants the press and consumers to believe their message of strength, safety, and unity, while making their employees too terrified to speak out and challenge that narrative.

Senators Take Notice

A group of nine senators, lead by Elizabeth Warren, have signed a letter asking Amazon why they continue to fire whistleblowers. The company’s responses have been hollow and obviously untrue. Furthermore, their acts of retaliation, especially running contrary to the health and safety of their employees, runs contrary to U.S. law.

“Employers have a statutory duty to ensure workplaces are “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm” to employees.” In addition, once an employee has filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration, “no person shall discharge or in any manner discriminate against” the employee. The federal government advises workers: ‘If you have concerns, you have the right to speak up about them without fear of retaliation.'”

– From senators’ letter to Amazon

The senators include former Democratic presidential candidates Cory Booker, Kristen Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, and Bernie Sanders. Tammy Baldwin, Richart Blumenthal, Sherrod Brown, and Edmarkey also signed. Every senator signing the letter asking for more information about these possible violations of worker safety and rights were Democrats. An issue like sick workers should not be an issue that divides our political parties, but it seems only one side of the aisle want to support workers during this crisis.

The letter can be read in full on Elizabeth Warren’s site. It calls for Amazon to give detailed reasons for dismissing their employees, and why they had nothing to do with organizing or speaking to press. Given Amazon’s internal memos, it seems as though this will be impossible without lying.

We Trade in Sweat

You worked for your money. You use that money to buy things. Other people who have worked hard to bring those products to you do their best. We all support each other. We all work to keep each other alive. In the end, we do what we can for society, and we’re rewarded with money, but we’re really just trading our skills, abilities, knowledge, and strength for the output of other people’s work. We trade our sweat for someone else’s.

As long as we have laws that protect people’s rights, their health, and everyone’s interests equally, this is acceptable. But monopolies on e-commerce like Amazon make equality impossible. Now they’re making safety and individual rights scarce as well. Now people are trading their lives.

I’m an Amazon addict. I was long before COVID-19. I started trying to shop local, but finding what I needed locally wasn’t always easy. Still, I go to my local skate shop for everything, going online as a last resort. I’ve started trying to do this for other things Amazon offers. Slowly weaning myself off the service. COVID-19 threw a wrench into my plans, but I’ve still tried to vary my buying. It’s tough. For so long, Amazon has been the go-to source for everything. I had a Prime account that I didn’t think twice about. Now? Amazon’s got a lot to worry about once people can start going outside again. Maybe that’s why they’re trying to make this virus last as long as possible. It’s good for business. Hopefully it won’t be for much longer.

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Sources/Further Reading:

• Paul Blest, Vice
• Igor Bonifacic, Engadget
• Tim Bray
• Josh Dzieza, The Verge, [2]
• Rachel England, Engadget
• Christine Fisher, Engadget
• Brian Heater, Techcrunch
• Jason Koebler, Vice Motherboard
• Kim Lyons, The Verge
• Annie Palmer, CNBC
• Michael Sainato, The Guardian
• Elizabeth Warren and others