Amazon fires three workers who criticized warehouse conditions:
Amazon has fired two tech workers after they spoke out publicly against warehouse conditions during the coronavirus pandemic. User experience designers Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, both active members of the advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, had offered match donations up to $500 for warehouse workers, citing insufficient protections.
The company which had warned both employees about violating company policies earlier this year, confirmed the firings in a statement emailed to CNET. "We support every employee's right to criticize their employer's working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies," an Amazon spokesperson said. "We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.
Amazon on Tuesday confirmed it also fired Bashir Mohamed, a Minnesota warehouse employee who was involved in organizing worker demonstrations. BuzzFeed earlier reported on his termination.
Amazon spokeswoman Kristen Kish said in a statement that the company respects and recognizes employees' right to protest, but said health and safety concerns need to be considered. "This individual was terminated as a result of progressive disciplinary action for inappropriate language, behavior, and violating social distancing guidelines," she said.
[...] Last month, the company fired New York warehouse worker Christian Smalls for violating "multiple safety issues" by defying instructions to stay home with pay for 14 days because he'd been in close contact with an infected employee. Smalls was a central organizer for a protest against working conditions at his Staten Island facility. His termination sparked an outcry against the company from advocacy groups and elected officials, who pushed to get him reinstated.
"Workers have every right to voice their concerns to management, especially if they feel their safety is being compromised. Amazon should do everything it can to listen, protect and support its workers." Sen. Bob Menendez, who has often criticized the company for its treatment of workers, said in a statement.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @01:38PM (1 child)
They'll replace the fired workers with Mexican illegals and fundamentalist Muslims, run up a rainbow flag, and the unions will love them and squelch any attempt to criticize Amazon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @06:29PM
FTFY
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @03:23PM
ICFI/Socialist Equality Party USA (Kishore/Santa Cruz 2020):
Amazon cracks down on rebellious workers as first COVID-19 fatality is reported [wsws.org]
Outrage grows as Amazon workers die for Bezos’ profits [wsws.org]
Union seeks to block strike as Polish Amazon workers contract COVID-19 [wsws.org]
As more workers test positive for COVID-19, Amazon ignores demands to close warehouses [wsws.org]
Video: South Carolina Amazon worker speaks on loss of his health, benefits and job [wsws.org]
ISA/Socialist Alternative USA:
Seattle: Tax Amazon Launches Signature Gathering for Ballot Measure [socialistalternative.org]
Tax Amazon: Big Business Needs to Pay for the Failures of Capitalism! [socialistalternative.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday April 17 2020, @04:45PM (14 children)
The GOP has been working hard to ensure that the government bodies in charge of enforcing US employment law, such as the NLRB, aren't functioning. For instance, it's illegal to fire employees for talking about unionizing, but that hasn't stopped anybody from doing so for a long time.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @05:01PM (8 children)
Respect for the law is declining at all levels. For instance, it is illegal to enter the United States illegally, but that hasn't stopped anybody from doing so for a long time. We either respect the rule of law or we do not. We are now in a situation where people feel it is acceptable to pick and choose which laws to ignore. The left ignores immigration law and the right ignores employment law. It doesn't really work well to try to have it both ways...
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday April 17 2020, @05:27PM (6 children)
The left isn't the one ignoring immigration law.
For example, it's perfectly legal for a family to enter the US from another country, turn yourself over to the authorities, and apply for asylum on the grounds that staying where they were will lead to them being killed by their government or an international drug syndicate. What's not legal is for said authorities to immediately grab the kids away from the parents, separate the parents from each other, and hold them in a prison forever under intentionally torturous conditions (we know it's not a cost problem because the amount the prisons are getting paid per person per day is more than enough to put all these people up at a 4-star hotel), while a substantial number of the kids go "missing" and/or are sexually abused.
And by far the worst offenders when it comes to immigration law? Meatpackers, vegetable growers, construction crews (including the ones building the border fences), hotels, and lots of other industries that routinely employ illegal immigrants and even arrange for their travel and falsify their paperwork for them.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 17 2020, @05:58PM (5 children)
And it's perfectly legal to fire employees for "repeatedly violating internal policies". You going somewhere with this?
And thus, there's plenty that gets ignored because we're in a world where lawbreaking is selectively enforced. It has to be, or most of us would be in jail already.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday April 17 2020, @06:58PM (2 children)
Sure: Whenever internal policy contradicts the laws of the jurisdiction where the events take place, the policies are not legally allowed to be enforced. For instance, if company internal policy is to pay women less than men for doing the same job, that policy is illegal, and if management fires somebody for violating that internal policy that somebody can win a civil case for wrongful termination and/or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission can take enforcement action against the company.
In this case, there is substantial evidence (e.g. emails, internal announcements, and public statements) that Amazon fired these employees for labor organizing activity, which is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. It doesn't matter what their internal policies said, what they did was illegal.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 17 2020, @07:53PM
When I searched for "email" in the story, I got this interesting bit:
How could Amazon have the power to delete the emails? Answer: employees were using company resources. Using company computer/email resources for non-company purposes is a common internal policy reason people get fired.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Saturday April 18 2020, @04:07AM
You can't get away with a long rant against the company and its managers just because you end your message with "and oh yeah, please help form a union."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @07:36PM (1 child)
It's funny how only those people that support unionizing happen to get fired to violating internal policies.
Must just be that union supporters violate policies while the others never do. No other explanation makes sense.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 17 2020, @07:48PM
Not at all. You wouldn't have heard about them otherwise.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @05:28PM
I heard that some of those leftists have even been dumping tea into Boston harbor. They have no appreciation for the defense their government and king provided them in the war. They refuse to pay taxes, like they think the funding for a military campaign like that grows on trees!
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday April 17 2020, @08:51PM (4 children)
They didn't fire employees for unionizing, they fired employees for violating social distancing policies, according to the summary.
Maybe these upstanding citizens should have organized via virtual calling services rather than in person during an ongoing pandemic.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 5, Informative) by MostCynical on Friday April 17 2020, @09:37PM (1 child)
they found something in their internal policies as an excuse to fire people who were causing trouble*
*'trouble' includes costing the company more money for better pay and/or conditions, including worker safety.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday April 17 2020, @10:19PM
Then when you're causing trouble, you should be extra careful you aren't violating internal policies, which just seems like common sense.
"Looking for an excuse" happens all the time. Hell, I do it in code reviews when I see code that my gut tells me is trouble, I look through the coding policies for a violation.
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(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday April 17 2020, @09:45PM (1 child)
One of the major complaints the employees in question had was that due to the warehouse layout and order shipping quotas, it was impossible to *not* violate social distancing rules. For instance, in a warehouse with less than 6 feet between shelves, it's impossible to pass somebody heading the other direction, and if you instead turn around and loop around a shelf to approach from the other end you're taking to long to fulfill the order.
So management set up rules that nobody could possibly follow, and only fired the people who complained, supposedly for not following those rules. Yeah right.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday April 17 2020, @10:25PM
If there is evidence for that, that is illegal regardless of the union busting claims. Selective policy enforcement to discriminate against individuals is illegal by itself. That also sounds like a potential OSHA violation, which again is illegal regardless of the union busting claims. Again, if there is evidence. If there is no evidence, then it's merely hearsay no matter how much you hate Amazon or how despicable Amazon is on other fronts. "Innocent until proven guilty" cuts both ways, and two wrongs don't make a right.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Barenflimski on Friday April 17 2020, @06:31PM (7 children)
I always hear the same lines from people here in the states.
1. It is a privilege to work.
2. All people should have jobs and its a basic necessity of life.
3. You should keep your mouth shut when working for an employer which is 8-24 hours a day.
4. You have first amendment right to free speech.
5. If all people participated in the system it would be representative of the people.
Once you break all of this down the result is corporate law. You tout the company line at all times or you will be fired. The democracy is for people that haven't signed other contracts. If you don't have a job you're a drain on society, but you can only have one if you say what we want you to say.
We see it at Amazon. We see it at Google. We see it at Facebook We see it at pretty much every large company.
At the same time we see massive rates of depression and anxiety. People are not very happy as a whole in the United States. How can they be when most peoples freedom is fleeting? How can they when people live for the weekends hoping they can retire in good enough health to take a long vacation?
It would be refreshing to see all sides of this pull back. The mobs of people over-reacting to BS stories in the media would need to stop. The corporations would need to loosen their belts and accept people for speaking up. The people need to come together and simply understand that as humans, we mostly want the same basic things. The shaming would need to be toned down, and a whole lot of understanding to replace that. Firing people would be for truly egregious acts like sabotaging the production lines and injuring people.
How we get there, I don't know. I understand why we are at this point based on our laws and insurance agencies. This pearl clutching is not a way to live though. To do this we would have to trust each other, which we do until its time to throw our friends under the bus. We'd have to believe in each other, which we do until we point out that everyone else is an idiot but me. We'd have to have faith in each other, until we point out that everyone else has flaws, but me.
People need jobs. Jobs should not be methods of silencing people. Someone speaking up at Amazon isn't going to put a dent in their growth. People get used to just about everything. I am sure we could also get used to a world where democracy was afforded to people during their careers and people could understand the nuances of truly living.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @07:31PM
With an attitude like that, get a goverment job.
They don't go out of business, don't have to turn a profit, don't have to give a damn about the customer. Lousy workers end up there because they wouldn't last anywhere else. The govt workplace though does have its own set of taboo topics that musn't be challenged, but if you approve of the politics, you won't care. If it benefits you personally, you can even embrace it and milk it to advance your career.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @07:34PM
1.
It is a privilege to work.Work is paid slavery.(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Friday April 17 2020, @08:13PM
While there are some quotes interpreting generic work as a privilege (for example, here [goodreads.com] with religious undertones), most people would not agree with point 1. If the job is unusually generous or fulfilling, then it can be considered a privilege.
Point 2. is reasonable for most people. Obviously, one come up with people sufficiently crippled in mind or body, who simply can't work at all. It makes no sense to claim they should have jobs that they can never do. As to the "basic necessity of life", we obviously need a lot of stuff. Who better positioned to deliver those necessities than ourselves? And if you've saved and invested wisely with a privileged enough job that you don't need to work for a length of time, so what?
Notice the mixing of multiple pet peeves here. I've never worked for an employer that required 24 hours a day or that I keep my mouth shut. Guess I'm privileged.
Let's look at that:
No private employer listed there.
"IF". The obvious rebuttal is the parts of the system that don't require all peoples' participation (such as private businesses) aren't a major problem and the public parts are so complex, dysfunctional, and secretive that one can't fairly participate in them even with full time effort.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday April 17 2020, @08:53PM
Part of the reason for those attitudes having a lot more political sway in the US compared to, say, Denmark, is that the US has a long and recent history of its economy resting on the backs of an exploited underclass that is completely unable to escape said exploitation because it's based on characteristics that a person cannot change. This history means that a lot of people who should be thinking of themselves as potentially exploited instead see themselves as at least potentially exploiters, and that changes the equation of what simple self-interest drives people to like.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @10:25PM (1 child)
Federal America is simply too detached from local America's needs. Nobody even at the state legislature level is getting there without corporate handouts or kickbacks, anyone in Congress owes even more favors, and the presidents are bought and paid for.
The only way America can truly be represented by sufficiently likeminded Americans again is either to relocate into groups with defacto control of their county/state government, emigrate, start their own nation (seasteading or military conquest), or overthrow the government.
Even the gun toting nutjobs in America are too pussy to overthrow the government, which leaves either gaining the purchasing power to buy out an entire region and keeping the state/federal government out, or emigrating and creating a new society more aligned with the ideals of its constituents.
Based on my past 8+ years of experience with this, I don't see either happening. The situation in America is only going to get worse, the people won't protest the misdeeds of their government until it is far too late, and the only people getting out will be joining some other state, possibly as a permanent resident while claiming US citizenship for the 'benefits'.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Saturday April 18 2020, @04:34AM
In New Hampshire, it's not uncommon for a candidate for the state legislature to run unopposed, spending no money on a campaign and no effort beyond going to the town hall to register his candidacy. The job is too much work and too little reward. There's almost nothing for a company to gain by sponsoring a candidate. This is one of the benefits of a minimal government; it isn't worthwhile to bribe someone who has nothing to offer.
The federal government should be detached from local needs. The Federal responsibility is national defense, national policy, and broad things generally that need to be uniform across the country. Local needs are local and state business.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 19 2020, @12:17AM
The SJWs that rant about Amazon and Google firing employees for any reason who just happened to speak out are usually the same ones who call for the jobs of others who had the audacity to utter wrongthink.
(Score: 2) by anotherblackhat on Friday April 17 2020, @07:46PM
I wonder how many other employees violated those company policies and how many of them were fired.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @09:35PM (1 child)
His name is Bashir Mohamed? How do they introduce themselves at their place of worship, school, work, home, etc. when so many of them are named Mohamed?
I can just imagine it:
Mohamed: Ayyyyy, Mohamed my man, so good to see you. How are you?
Mohamed: Great to see you again, Mohamed. I am well.
Mohamed: Ayyyyy, Mohamed is here. Come, Mohamed, let's greet Mohamed!
Mohamed: Hi, guys! I just bought a new box of masks!
Mohamed: You're kidding! What until I tell Mohamed and Mohamed at work tomorrow.
Mohamed: What HAVE you done to your car, Mohamed?
Mohamed: Well, I actually washed it. I named it Mohamed.
Mohamed: A wonderful choice. Whooops, my phone is ringing. Ayyy it's Mohamed from Taco Bell.
Mohamed: What does he want?
Mohamed: Hey, you didn't wash all of your car, Mohamed, I see a spot right here.
Mohamed: GUYS! GUYS!
Mohamed: What the.... Mohamed? Is that really you?
Mohamed: YES! Still have that beater car, eh?
Mohamed: HAHAHA
Mohamed: My friends, I have created a new chat application. Now we can all join in together!
Mohamed has entered the chat.
Mohamed has entered the chat.
Mohamed has entered the chat.
Mohamed has entered the chat.
Mohamed has entered the chat.
Mohamed has entered the chat.
Mohamed has entered the chat.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Saturday April 18 2020, @04:37AM
Do you mind if we call you Bruce?