Click here for all ESSF coverage of the Coronavirus pandemic
A fired Amazon employee activist called for the company’s tech workers to go on a one-day virtual walkout during a controversial online meeting with warehouse workers Thursday.
“Do you think this is right? Are you OK with the firings and the conditions in the warehouses,” Maren Costa, a leader of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group, said to an online audience of about 375 people who had just heard from hourly Amazon workers in Chicago, New York and Poland. “Or would you be willing to join us in taking a sick day?”
Her call for an online walkout — what she termed “a COVID-style walkout” on April 24 — was echoed in a news release from the climate group, which since late 2018 has conducted a public campaign urging Amazon to take substantive action to address climate change. Its leaders have also been vocal advocates for the company’s hourly workers, more so during the pandemic.
Costa and another AECJ leader, Emily Cunningham, were fired last Friday after accepting an invitation to the web meeting, which they ended up hosting Thursday. They said Amazon subsequently deleted the calendar invitation from its internal systems, but not before several hundred employees had seen and accepted it.
Costa had previously been warned she could lose her job for speaking publicly about Amazon without approval. Amazon said in a statement Friday that it supports 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. We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.”
Costa and Cunningham said they were told they were fired for violating a policy against internal solicitation after circulating a petition in late March from warehouse workers seeking closures of facilities where employees have tested positive for COVID-19, hazard pay and other benefits.
A broad range of online actions, including an online climate strike, are planned for April 24.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the call for a walkout.
Benjamin Romano, Seattle Times business reporter
206-652-6593
bromano seattletimes.com
on Twitter: @bromano.
Amazon Tech Workers Call for Sick Out After Amazon Fires Tech Workers Who Criticized Company’s Role in Climate Crisis
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVxzda_UcAAsVtU?format=jpg&name=large
Amazon workers call for strike over Covid-19, climate fears
AFP 17/04/2020
Amazon tech workers are calling for a virtual one-day strike to pressure the online retail giant over warehouse safety conditions during the coronavirus pandemic.
The e-commerce colossus has reportedly had COVID-19 cases in a number of its warehouses and has seen employee protests and walkouts in several of them to press for safety improvements.
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group representing workers, urged colleagues to call in sick on April 24, accusing the company of firing workers protesting a lack of coronavirus precautions and environmental action.
“We’re asking tech workers to virtually walk out on Friday (April 24),” said Maren Costa, who US media reported was fired with fellow employee Emily Cunningham for criticizing Amazon over climate and coronavirus issues.
“We want to tell Amazon that we are sick of all this — sick of the firings, sick of the silencing, sick of pollution, sick of racism, and sick of the climate crisis,” Costa said.
The virtual “walk out”, according to the group’s statement, would see workers take a personal day off at the same time.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment but US media reported the company said the firings resulted from violations of “internal policies.”
The group also called for those fired for what they called “selective enforcement of policies and behavior guidelines” to be reinstated.
The Seattle-based internet giant set a goal of investing $350 million to support employees and partners during the pandemic, which has thrust Amazon into the spotlight as demand surges for online services during extensive lockdowns.
Earlier this month, the company said it was creating its own lab to test employees for coronavirus.
In a stockholders letter Thursday, owner Jeff Bezos said Amazon had distributed face masks and was implementing temperature checks.
The call to strike came as Amazon France closed its French distribution centers — key to preparing orders — in response to a court order to limit deliveries to essential goods pending a review of COVID-19 safety measures.
It initially said they would close for five days, during which period employees would be paid their full salaries.
But Amazon France director general Frederic Duval said he was unsure when they would reopen.
Workers said they were glad to be sent home, with one telling AFP that Amazon had taken weeks to provide them with sanitising hand gel and masks.
“For a week we worked without gloves,” one 23-year-old part-time worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
(AFP)
Other articles about Amazon on ESSF site
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?page=mot&id_mot=9615