Amazon fires more staff who criticised working conditions

Bloomberg

Amazon.com Inc is hitting back at activists within its own ranks, terminating three employees who had criticised working conditions in its warehouses.
The retailer confirmed that it had fired Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa for violating company policy. The two employees, who worked at Seattle headquarters, had taken to Twitter recently to voice concerns about the treatment of workers during the coronavirus pandemic; they’ve also long been involved in an employee campaign urging Amazon to do more to fight climate change.
A third employee, Bashir Mohamed, who worked in a warehouse in Minnesota, was also fired. The Washington Post and BuzzFeed News reported earlier on the firings, which took place last week.
US senators, labour leaders and some of Amazon’s own workers have expressed concern that the company hasn’t been doing enough to keep employees safe as Covid-19 cases pop up in dozens of facilities in the US and Europe. Groups of workers have staged walkouts at Amazon warehouses in New York, Illinois and Michigan.
Amazon said the two employees at its headquarters had been terminated for violating its policy prohibiting employees from speaking publicly about company matters.
“We support every employee’s right to criticise their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies,” the company said. “We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.”
The company has also defended its work to keep warehouses safe, saying it’s following public-health guidance to limit employee contact in its facilities and supporting employees diagnosed with the disease. Amazon has offered temporary raises and more lucrative overtime to warehouse employees working during the pandemic.
Cunningham and Costa were outspoken leaders in Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. Cunningham, a user experience designer, spoke on behalf of the group at Amazon’s 2019 shareholder meeting.
Both were also among the workers who in January defied a stricter Amazon corporate policy on employees speaking in public without authorisation.
“I truly believe Amazon can play an incredibly powerful and good role during Covid-19,” Cunningham said in a statement released by the employee group.
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, called the firings “outrageous” on Twitter.