Amazon keeps firing its employees that raises concerns over treatment during the coronavirus pandemic and that is causing many people to wonder how the company runs and care for the wellness of its workers which had in fact prompted the resignation of a senior executive at the company who called the act a “Chickenshit”
The Vice President of AWS, Tim Bray had made it know in a blog post posted on his own website that he is leaving his position at the company after five years due to the “dismay” he feels about the act of firing workers who complained about the company’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Bray is a well decorated person at the company as well as being a Distinguished Engineer and is known to to have contributed to foundational web standards which includes him co-authoring the original XML specification. He estimates that walking away from his current job will cost him over one million dollars pre-tax, and he also mentioned his sadness at leaving “the best job I’ve ever had.”
Bray said he was compelled to quit working at the e-commerce giant after seeing the way the company treats workers who took part in employee activism as well as threatening workers involved in the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group with dismissal and culminating with a leaked internal Amazon memo which insulted and targeted a worker who was fired for organizing a strike due to Coronavirus pandemic.
The issue of Chris Smalls had raised a lot of questions about how the company handles employee’s freedom of expression. Amazon in turn stated clearly that Smalls firing was due to his violation of quarantine order given to him.
Two other activist leaders who voiced concerns over the company’s response to the coronavirus and the safety of warehouse employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, were also recently fired for violating company policies.
Bray said that he attempted to raise his problems with this approach through the appropriate channels, but the company’s response was not satisfactory to him and that “remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised.”
He also pointed out that the targets of these actions by the company were notably women and people of color.
Bray didn’t pull any punches in his assessment of the firings, saying they were “designed to create a climate of fear” and “like painting a sign on your forehead saying ‘Either guilty, or has something to hide.’ ”
Amazon declined to comment about Bray’s resignation.
Meanwhile Amazon had faced lots of backlash over its operation despite the close-down and social distancing measures put in place by the governmental officials to further curb the spread of the pandemic.
“We encourage anyone interested in the facts to compare our overall pay and benefits, as well as our speed in managing this crisis, to other retailers and major employers across the country,” an Amazon spokesperson told Digital Trends.
