Topline
Amazon in recent days fired two Amazon warehouse workers with ties to unionization efforts at the company’s Staten Island JFK8 warehouse, according to the employees, days after the New York Times reported the company had fired six senior managers at the Staten Island facility.
Christian Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, speaks at a rally outside an Amazon facility … [+] on Staten Island.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Key Facts
Tristan Dutchin, a former package picker at the JFK8 warehouse, as well as Mat Cusick, a communications director for the Amazon Labor Union who sorted packages at the nearby DYY6 facility, told CNBC and Vice on Monday they had been fired by the company.
Dutchin—who was featured in several news outlets’ coverage of the Amazon Labor Union—said he was told he had failed to meet the company’s productivity goals, while Cusick said he was fired for being absent for three days after taking company-approved Covid-19 sick leave.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNBC the firings were unrelated to the employees’ organizing efforts and said Amazon has to take “appropriate action” when employees can’t meet minimum expectations.
The news comes several days after the Times, citing four anonymous current and former employees, reported Amazon fired more than half a dozen managers, many of whom were involved in the unionization efforts, a month after the Staten Island facility voted to unionize in the first major victory for the company’s labor movement.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told Forbes last week the company decided to make management changes after evaluating “operations and leadership” at the facility, adding Amazon believed it was important to “take time to review” whether it was “doing the best” it could for its team.
The Amazon Labor Union did not respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Key Background
The news comes a month after Amazon Labor Union—a group founded by former and current Amazon workers pushing for better safety conditions, higher pay and longer breaks, among other demands—scored a major victory when workers voted 2,654 to 2,131 to unionize at Amazon’s largest warehouse in Staten Island called JFK8. Amazon—which has long opposed efforts to unionize—filed an objection to the vote shortly after with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming union organizers forced workers to vote yes and asking for a redo. The union suffered a setback this week when workers at the company’s smaller sorting center across the street voted 618 to 380 against unionization. Amazon reportedly attempted to dissuade workers in the lead up to the vote at both facilities by holding mandatory meetings to try to discourage workers from voting in favor of unionization. Several of the senior managers Amazon fired this week were veterans of the company, the Times reported.
Tangent
Official results are still up in the air from another union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. The do-over election took place in March, with an initial count showing 53% of eligible workers voting against unionization, though hundreds of contested ballots have yet to be resolved and both Amazon and labor organizers have filed objections.
Further Reading
Amazon Abruptly Fires Senior Managers Tied to Unionized Warehouse (New York Times)
Amazon Workers Reject Union Bid At Second NY Facility (Forbes)
