Amazon climate group plan employee ‘sickout’ in protest of treatment of workers

Move comes as leaders Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa fired

A group of Amazon employees are attempting to stage a ‘sickout’ in protest of the company’s treatment of workers amidst the coronavirus.

The protest, which is being organised online by the group, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), urges employees to call in sick on the 24 April.

The move comes just after two Amazon employees who were both leaders of the group were fired.

Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, who had both spoken out online in support of Amazon’s warehouse workers protesting conditions amidst the virus, were fired by the company last week.

On 14 April during a virtual panel with Amazon employees, the two women called for workers to participate in the sick out.

“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. So we’re asking tech workers to join us for a sick out on Friday, 24 April and show Amazon that you do not agree with their actions,” said Ms Costa to event attendees.

When contacted for comment on the climate groups protest an Amazon spokesperson reiterated an earlier statement: “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. We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.”

According to a post about the protest online, the two women had worked at Amazon for over 20 years between them. The group said they and have been prominent figures in their climate campaign, which formed in December 2018.

At Amazon’s shareholder meeting last year, Ms Cunningham called for Amazon to reduce its use of fossil fuels, according to CNCB.

Last year the group almost 3,000 corporate workers to walk out for the #GlobalClimateStrike in September 2019, and in April 2019 over 8,700 employees signed an open letter, about the company’s climate failures, according to a press release from AECJ.

“They’ve wanted me gone for a while,” Ms Cunningham claimed upon her termination, according to The Washington Post.

“They were targeting the most visible leaders in an attempt to silence everyone,” Ms Costa also said according to the outlet.

According to the group’s post about the event the protesters are demanding that Amazon reinstate workers who have been fired, improve efforts to protect employees from infection and make commitments to climate justice.

Amazon has drawn continued scrutiny in recent weeks over its treatment of employees amidst the pandemic as at least two other Amazon employees who were involved in protesting working conditions were recently fired.

Bashir Mohamed, who worked at Amazon’s Minnesota warehouse, was fired last week and told BuzzFeed News that he had been campaigning for safer working conditions to protect workers from the transmission of the coronavirus.

According to the report, Mr Mohamed said Amazon told him he was terminated because he refused to speak to his supervisor. Mr Mohamed reportedly did not deny that allegation, although he is said to have alleged his supervisor treated him unfairly.

An Amazon spokesperson told The Independent that Mr Mohamed “was terminated as a result of progressive disciplinary action for inappropriate language, behaviour, and violating social distancing guidelines.”

“We respect the rights of employees to protest and recognise their legal right to do so; however, these rights do not provide blanket immunity against bad actions, particularly those that endanger the health, well-being or safety of their colleagues,” Kristen Kish an Amazon Spokesperson told The Independent.

Not long before Mr Mohamed’s termination, the company faced criticism for firing a worker who was involved in organising a protest of the firm’s handling of coronavirus in Staten Island.

Christian Smalls claimed that senior warehouse staff had not engaged with calls for the Staten Island site to be closed for sterilisation and organised a walkout in protes

“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,” Mr Smalls said in a statement.

Amazon denied that Mr Smalls was fired for the protest and said his employment was ended because he breached health and safety regulations.

“Mr Smalls received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines. He was also found to have had close contact with a diagnosed associate with a confirmed case of Covid-19 and was asked to remain home with pay for 14-days, which is a measure we’re taking at sites around the world. Despite that instruction to stay home with pay, he came onsite further putting the teams at risk,” Ms Kish previously told The Independent in a statement.

The online retailer has come under increasing pressure by workers over safety concerns at their warehouses amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Post reported that at least 74 warehouses and delivery facilities in the US have had employees test positive for the novel coronavirus.

On Tuesday Amazon acknowledged the first reported coronavirus-related death among its workers as a manager in its Hawthorne, California, warehouse, according to reports.