Amazon says it fired a guy for breaking pandemic rules. Same guy who organized a staff protest over a lack of coronavirus protection
- Reference: 1585789731
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/02/amazon_coronavirus_firing/
- Source link:
Smalls, in a statement, said, "Amazon would rather fire workers than face up to its total failure to do what it should to keep us, our families, and our communities safe. I am outraged and disappointed but I am not shocked. As usual, Amazon would rather sweep a problem under the rug than act to keep workers and working communities safe."
Amazon spokesperson Kristen Kish denied the firing had anything to do with protected labor activity. "We did not terminate Mr Smalls employment for organizing a 15-person protest," she said in an emailed statement. "We terminated his employment for putting the health and safety of others at risk and violations of his terms of his employment."
Strike organizers have disputed Amazon's attendance figures, claiming about 50 people walked out.
Kish said Smalls had received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines and had been asked to remain home with pay for two weeks because he had been in the proximity of another worker confirmed to have COVID-19. By ignoring that instruction and coming on-site, she said, he was putting colleagues at risk.
Concern about health safety has spread across Amazon's workforce. Workers at Amazon's Whole Foods grocery chain on Tuesday staged a sick-out, demanding 2x hazard pay for working in stores where they may be exposed to coronavirus.
The company last month [1]boosted pay for Amazon and Whole Foods hourly employees in the US and Canada by $2 an hour and £2 per hour for employees in the UK during the month of April. And it said it would double its hourly base rate – ranging from $17.50 to $23/hour at JFK8, its Staten Island warehouse – for overtime from March 16, 2020 through May 3, 2020. The company has also offered two weeks of pay for workers quarantined for coronavirus.
Amazon Germany faces Christmas strikes from elf stackers, packers and dispatchers [2]READ MORE
Kish disputed Smalls's claims, and praised the heroism of Amazon workers. "These accusations are simply unfounded," she said. "Of the more 5,000 employees at our Staten Island site, 15 people – less than half a percent of associates – participated in Monday’s demonstration."
A training video [3]leaked in 2018 describes Amazon's stance on unions thus: "We are not anti-union, but we are not neutral either. We do not believe unions are in the best interest of our customers or shareholders or most importantly, our associates."
Amazon workers in Detroit and Chicago have also protested their working conditions during the pandemic.
Concerns about coronavirus may help end up improving worker benefits beyond Amazon, at least among those who manage to retain their jobs. On Wednesday, US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent [4]a letter to the CEOs of gig economy employers DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Instacart urging them to classify delivery workers as employees rather than independent contracts to "provide appropriate pay, benefits, and protections during the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic."
New York State Attorney General Letitia James on Monday condemned Amazon's dismissal of Smalls, and asked the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to investigate the incident.
"It is disgraceful that Amazon would terminate an employee who bravely stood up to protect himself and his colleagues," said James in [5]a statement . "At the height of a global pandemic, Chris Smalls and his colleagues publicly protested the lack of precautions that Amazon was taking to protect them from COVID-19."
Recent [6]changes to NLRB rules and personnel may give Amazon an edge if there is an investigation. William Emmanuel, [7]appointed to the NLRB in September 2017, worked at law firm Littler Mendelson, [8]known for helping employers fight unions. Amazon was one of his firm's 162 corporate clients.
Following Emmanuel's confirmation, Senator Warren (D-MA) and other Democratic lawmakers wrote him [9]a letter [PDF] expressing worries about his ability to set aside his past work. "We are concerned about your long history of representing employers wishing to make it harder for workers to bargain collectively," the letter says.
In response to lawmaker inquiries, Emmanuel [10]pledged [PDF] to recuse himself from cases involving former clients for two years following his appointment, until September, 29, 2019.
On Tuesday, US Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) also questioned Amazon's firing of Smalls. "If he was indeed fired for union organizing activity, that is entirely unacceptable and so I welcome @NYCCHR [New York City Commission on Human Rights] investigating this matter further," he said [11]via Twitter on Tuesday. ®
[1] https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/how-amazon-is-helping-customers-get-groceries
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/16/amazon_germany_hit_by_strikes/
[3] https://gizmodo.com/amazons-aggressive-anti-union-tactics-revealed-in-leake-1829305201
[4] https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-calls-on-doordash-grubhub-uber-eats-and-instacart-to-protect-workers-health-increase-pay-to-compensate-for-coronavirus-risks
[5] https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/ag-james-statement-firing-amazon-worker-who-organized-walkout
[6] https://www.epi.org/press/new-trump-nlrb-election-rule-betrays-the-workers-it-is-meant-to-protect/
[7] https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/william-j-emanuel-sworn-nlrb-member-0
[8] https://www.littler.com/publication-press/press/littler-labeled-union-busting-firm
[9] https://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2017_11_7_Emanuel_Ethics_Obligations.pdf
[10] https://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2017_11_21_Letter_to_Senator_Warren_from_Member_Emanuel_re_Ethics_Obligations.pdf
[11] https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1245117335649898496?s=20
Re: Troll
"if he indeed was warned multiple times"
Key word, if.
"One sided reporting"
So one sided, we put Amazon's reasoning in the headline and prominently at the start of the article. Good grief.
C.
Re: Troll
The key word is "if" on both sides.
Re: One Sided Reporting
According to an interview with him. He had a short conversation with the infected worker whom he supervised. He sounded the alarm that other workers had been exposed and procedures to prevent the spread of virus were inadequate. The coworkers whom he supervised worked in much closer contact with the infected worker stayed on the job and he was sent home for quarantine with far less exposure.
Re: One Sided Reporting
It's always possible that Amazon warned him, offered to pay him while he stayed home, etc. But does the following story really sound likely:
The man works for a company, but he is unhappy with working conditions; he feels them to be unsafe and doesn't feel the workers are paid sufficiently for the current conditions. Please note that he was willing to accept the pay earlier when he joined the company, so his reservations are about the current conditions although he could already have been displeased. He protests about this to the company. In the next two days, he somehow manages to come into contact with someone who had a confirmed case of the disease in the workplace even though someone with a confirmed case or symptoms of the disease should definitely not have been working there and violate repeated requests, which he seems to do quickly. His employer suggests to him that he should not come in to work, thus not subjecting him to the conditions he felt were unsafe, but that they will still pay him the old rate that he had accepted back when he wasn't so worried about the conditions. He chooses to violate this order despite the fact that he isn't being paid any more for going in, by going in he subjects himself to the conditions he was protesting only two days previous, and he puts his job at risk.
So tell me, if this is the situation, why is he choosing to violate the orders to stay home with pay? Has he demonstrated any incentive to want to be there? He's clearly not getting anything from Amazon for showing up, and he's already indicated he isn't happy with the situation there. The only reason I can think of is that he would want to continue organizing protests, but he could do that by contacting people outside of work. Also, how many warnings can he have gotten and violated? He protested on Monday and was allowed in then, so the warnings to definitely not come to work must have been between the protest and today. That's not a lot of days.
I don't know whether what he or Amazon says is right, but I do know that Amazon's story doesn't make a ton of sense. When you combine that with this particular person having angered Amazon, there are some clear possibilities that are worth consideration. It may be that, if this ever gets investigated, we will find out that there was a miscommunication and he in fact was fired for breaking regulations. But we may find many other things. The situation seems well worth a look.
Unions
And people have the gall to say we don't 'need' Unions anymore...
Re: Unions
Unions have their place, but the guy leading the charge is being paid to be somewhere else, and he isn't doing what he was being paid to do, then the guy doesn't deserve a job. A union plays no part in the decision.
Re: Wow!
Amazon likes to fire workers who protest in human robot-based warehouse working conditions! News at 11 !
One Sided Reporting
And if he indeed was warned multiple times and came in to work when he should have stayed at home, potentially exposing coworkers to infection: he should have been fired.
The reporting at ElReg that originates from San Francisco doesn't meet the standard set by its other reporters.