Amazon has fired two employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, after they publicly denounced the company’s treatment of warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
They had been fired after internally circulating a petition about health risks for Amazon warehouse workers during the Covid-19 crisis. Costa had worked at the company for more than 15 years and Cunningham had been an employee for more than five.
“I don’t regret standing up with my co-workers,” Costa said in a statement. “This is about human lives, and the future of humanity. In this crisis, we must stand up for what we believe in, have hope, and demand from our corporations and employers a basic decency that’s been lacking in this crisis. Why is Amazon so scared of workers talking with each other?” Costa said. “No company should punish their employees for showing concern for one another, especially during a pandemic.”
Cunningham said, “We are in the middle of both the climate crisis and a global pandemic. This is the time to deeply care about one another,” Cunningham said. “We have to do all that we can to support workers on the frontlines, now more than ever.”
Amazon Employees For Climate Justice said in addition to terminating Costa and Cunningham, the company had also censored invitations for a virtual event that would have allowed warehouse workers to share their concerns over working during the pandemic with white-collar employees. The company deleted all invitations and emails regarding the event, a spokesman for the group said, even after thousands of employees had RSVPed.
Earlier this week, the company fired Bashir Mohamed, a warehouse worker in Minnesota who was also speaking out against unsafe conditions surrounding Covid-19.
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