SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Amazon employees hold a protest and walk out over conditions at the company's Staten Island distribution facility on March 30, 2020 in New York City. On May 5, 2022, several managers at the warehouse were abruptly fired a month after workers voted to unionize. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Amazon Fires Managers at Recently Unionized Warehouse
"If you can't fire your recently unionized warehouse staff for unionizing, then I guess you fire the warehouse managers for failing to stop the unionization instead."
May 06, 2022
More than half a dozen managers at Amazon's JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island were abruptly fired Thursday, a month after workers at the warehouse made history by overwhelmingly voting in favor of unionizing.
"Hard to interpret this as anything other than a message to other Amazon managers: don't let your workers unionize."
The company claimed the terminations were part of an "organizational change," but The New York Times reported that the fired managers and several workers believe Amazon took the action to penalize supervisors who failed to stop the unionization effort.
The managers were fired "outside the company's typical employee review cycle," the Times reported.
"Hard to interpret this as anything other than a message to other Amazon managers: don't let your workers unionize," tweeted Times reporter Kenneth Vogel.
Last month's vote at JFK8 has garnered national attention not only for being the first successful union drive at the company, but also for being organized by a former worker who was fired in 2020 after protesting what he said were lax policies regarding Covid-19 safety.
The former worker and current Amazon Labor Union president, Christian Smalls, testified before the Senate Budget Committee Thursday about Amazon's intimidation tactics aimed at pressuring employees out of supporting the union.
Amazon's apparent dismissal of managers who failed to stop workers from unionizing was reported the same day that Starbucks executives complained to the White House about being left out of a meeting that pro-union President Joe Biden held with workers at the coffee chain.
Dozens of Starbucks stores across the U.S. have unionized in recent months despite an aggressive anti-union campaign by the company.
"From Starbucks to Amazon, management in disarray!" tweeted Jacobin writer Alex Press on Friday.
Amazon spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants last year ahead of the vote at JFK8.
"If you can't fire your recently unionized warehouse staff for unionizing, then I guess you fire the warehouse managers for failing to stop the unionization instead," said Protocol reporter Nick Statt.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
More than half a dozen managers at Amazon's JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island were abruptly fired Thursday, a month after workers at the warehouse made history by overwhelmingly voting in favor of unionizing.
"Hard to interpret this as anything other than a message to other Amazon managers: don't let your workers unionize."
The company claimed the terminations were part of an "organizational change," but The New York Times reported that the fired managers and several workers believe Amazon took the action to penalize supervisors who failed to stop the unionization effort.
The managers were fired "outside the company's typical employee review cycle," the Times reported.
"Hard to interpret this as anything other than a message to other Amazon managers: don't let your workers unionize," tweeted Times reporter Kenneth Vogel.
Last month's vote at JFK8 has garnered national attention not only for being the first successful union drive at the company, but also for being organized by a former worker who was fired in 2020 after protesting what he said were lax policies regarding Covid-19 safety.
The former worker and current Amazon Labor Union president, Christian Smalls, testified before the Senate Budget Committee Thursday about Amazon's intimidation tactics aimed at pressuring employees out of supporting the union.
Amazon's apparent dismissal of managers who failed to stop workers from unionizing was reported the same day that Starbucks executives complained to the White House about being left out of a meeting that pro-union President Joe Biden held with workers at the coffee chain.
Dozens of Starbucks stores across the U.S. have unionized in recent months despite an aggressive anti-union campaign by the company.
"From Starbucks to Amazon, management in disarray!" tweeted Jacobin writer Alex Press on Friday.
Amazon spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants last year ahead of the vote at JFK8.
"If you can't fire your recently unionized warehouse staff for unionizing, then I guess you fire the warehouse managers for failing to stop the unionization instead," said Protocol reporter Nick Statt.
More than half a dozen managers at Amazon's JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island were abruptly fired Thursday, a month after workers at the warehouse made history by overwhelmingly voting in favor of unionizing.
"Hard to interpret this as anything other than a message to other Amazon managers: don't let your workers unionize."
The company claimed the terminations were part of an "organizational change," but The New York Times reported that the fired managers and several workers believe Amazon took the action to penalize supervisors who failed to stop the unionization effort.
The managers were fired "outside the company's typical employee review cycle," the Times reported.
"Hard to interpret this as anything other than a message to other Amazon managers: don't let your workers unionize," tweeted Times reporter Kenneth Vogel.
Last month's vote at JFK8 has garnered national attention not only for being the first successful union drive at the company, but also for being organized by a former worker who was fired in 2020 after protesting what he said were lax policies regarding Covid-19 safety.
The former worker and current Amazon Labor Union president, Christian Smalls, testified before the Senate Budget Committee Thursday about Amazon's intimidation tactics aimed at pressuring employees out of supporting the union.
Amazon's apparent dismissal of managers who failed to stop workers from unionizing was reported the same day that Starbucks executives complained to the White House about being left out of a meeting that pro-union President Joe Biden held with workers at the coffee chain.
Dozens of Starbucks stores across the U.S. have unionized in recent months despite an aggressive anti-union campaign by the company.
"From Starbucks to Amazon, management in disarray!" tweeted Jacobin writer Alex Press on Friday.
Amazon spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants last year ahead of the vote at JFK8.
"If you can't fire your recently unionized warehouse staff for unionizing, then I guess you fire the warehouse managers for failing to stop the unionization instead," said Protocol reporter Nick Statt.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.