This article comes from the WeChat public account: Big Data Digest (ID: yysaag) , author: Cao Peixin, the original title of the article:” borrow epidemic Dismiss the strike leader in the name of! Amazon executive meeting minutes were exposed, chief legal affairs: who made him an honest man, title picture from: Visual China
Although “Work hard, play happily, and make history” is printed on the wall, Amazon employees seem to increasingly disbelieve this sentence.
During the “Prime Day” event that was comparable to Taobao ’s “Double Eleven” last year, Amazon Global Warehouse employees’ collective strikes in five countries due to deteriorating work environment and automated processes Unemployment anxiety ; before that, Amazon also broke out to use AI to monitor employees and lay off more than 100 employees.
Recently,Another incident between Amazon and employees detonated the network again. According to the “VICE” report, a memo leaked at an internal meeting attended by Bezos showed that Amazon fired a warehouse employee on the grounds of violating the company ’s 14-day quarantine regulations Christian Smalls (Christian Smalls) , and this employee happens to be the leader of a strike event .
Although it is understandable to dismiss employees because of illegal epidemic prevention and control measures, the words of Amazon ’s chief legal advisor broke out at the meeting.
Amazon ’s Chief Legal Counsel David Zapowski (David Zapolsky) wrote in the minutes of the meeting: “ He is not smart enough , Not good at speaking. If the media focuses on the confrontation between us and him, our public relations effect will explain us countless times how (During the epidemic) It is much better to try to protect employees.”
The meeting minutes were widely forwarded within Amazon, and after it flowed out, it caused a lot of repercussions on the Internet: Not smart enough and unspoken, so can the dismissal be used for public relations?
Today, Amazon fired two employees who publicly criticized working conditions during the epidemic —User Experience Designer Emily Cunningham (Emily Cunningham) and Marlen Costa (Maren Costa) .
What’s wrong with Amazon?
Use dismissed employees for negative news public relations?
This happened at Amazon ’s daily regular meeting to inform each other about the latest situation of coronaviruses. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also attended the meeting.
In describing the purpose of this meeting, Jay Carney, Amazon ’s Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs (Jay Carney) CNN said: “We are discussing the latest situation with our employees, customers, and companies, and we have spent a lot of time brainstorming and thinking about what else we can do for the new coronavirus pneumonia.” < / p>
The meeting minutes also reflect this. The records show that in order to protect workers from coronavirus infections, Amazon has purchased millions of masks and started producing and selling its own masks . As of now, Amazon has provided employees with at least 10 million masks, and will purchase 25 million masks in the next two weeks.
After the meeting, the dismissed employee was discussed-Christian Smalls (Christian Smalls) , Smalls is Those who were fired a week ago, The meeting did not discuss his dismissal, but the PR issue discussed .
Prior to this, Amazon ’s warehouse in New York broke out Two employees were infected with the new crown virus . Smos led a strike of 50-200 people, protesting that Amazon did not protect employees. Employees are at risk .
This incident has aroused widespread media attention, so this Amazon high-level meeting plans to publicize this wave of negative news.
Chief Legal Counsel David said, “We should elaborate in the first half of the response why the organizer ’s behavior is unethical, unacceptable, and arguably illegal, before continuing on our work safety Key points of conversation. “
“Make him the most interesting part of the story, if possible, make him the spokesperson for the entire union / organizational movement. ”
Obviously, Amazon is preparing to use the Smos incident to counter Amazon ’s extensive strike movement . The minutes of the meeting show that other participants in the meeting reached “general agreement” on this point. This includes Dave Clark, senior vice president of global operations, senior vice president of customer service, and Beth Galletti, senior vice president of human resources.
The end of the dismissal: is it because of the epidemic or for revenge?
Christian Smalls ’s (Christian Smalls) ’s dismissal itself is also very controversial.
The Amazon JFK8 warehouse affiliated to Smalls is the largest warehouse in New York City , with a total of 2,500 employees working in it. The segregation at home caused by the epidemic has brought huge orders to Amazon, and the entire warehouse is also operating at full capacity.
On March 11, a worker working at Amazon ’s JFK8 warehouse was tested positive for coronavirus, and was subsequently asked to quarantine at home. Then another worker also tested positive. This employee was on March 24 Still working .
In order to force Amazon to close the warehouse and clean it up, and pay the workers ’wages in full during the factory closure, On March 30, Smalls began leading the workers’ strike .
However, Smos was fired afterwards. Amazon said that the reason for the dismissal was that he violated the company ’s self-quarantine order. After contacting a worker who tested positive, he went to the warehouse to lead a strike, leaving his colleagues infected with coronavirus. risks of.
For this, Smalls retorted: “You isolated me because I was in contact with someone, but I stayed with him for less than five minutes, and all of our colleagues work together more than 10 times a week Multiple hours . “
“This is revenge.” Smalls said, “They are shameful.”
Amazon ’s decision to dismiss Small has also been accused by Athena (Athena) , Athena is a social and economic justice The alliance of groups is committed to exerting influence on Amazon’s economic and public policies.
Only if the new crown is detected positive, can you take paid leave for two weeks < br>
Unlike China ’s e-commerce and logistics companies during the epidemic prevention period, Amazon did not stop work during the entire epidemic.
With the outbreak of the epidemic, some employees have confirmed the infection. So far, workers in more than 10 warehouses in Amazon have been tested positive for viruses . After a worker tested positive on March 18, Amazon closed an Amazon fulfillment center in Queens. After only one day of cleaning, the warehouse was put back in operation again strong>.
In the face of employee protests, Amazon is still refusing to close the warehouse, only providing an additional subsidy of $ 2 per hour to all employees, and Only provide a two-week period if the coronavirus test is positive Paid sick leave.
Under such circumstances, employees represented by Smalls tried to use strikes to express their dissatisfaction. Smalls said, “We are asking for help, and we hope that New York Governor Como will notice this”, ” The government needs to take Amazon seriously. “
The 100,000-member retail, wholesale and department store alliance (RWDSU) also issued a statement in support of strikers, “In this At that time, all employers need to prioritize the health and safety of their employees. “The president of RWDSU said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Amazon seems to put profit maximization above employee safety -this is unacceptable.”
In this regard, Amazon also refuted. In an email, Amazon called Smouse ’s allegations “unfounded” and criticized him for publishing “some incorrect comments” They also stated that Smo also received a salary during the 14-day period of self-isolation.
“Our employees are heroes fighting for the community, and they help people help get the key items they need in this crisis,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the company “Extreme measures to ensure people’s safety” .
Amazon also stated that before workers at the Staten Island factory begin shifts, the company conducts daily temperature checks. The company is consulting health officials on the deep disinfection process and recently introduced new welfare measures, including full-time employee Salary leave, overtime allowance, and part-time employee supportPay leave.
Although they said different things, whether Amazon ’s measures to deal with the epidemic were problematic, or whether the dismissal of Smos was fair and just, the outflow of minutes of the meeting made Amazon fall into another negative news Crisis, after all, trying to use dismissed employees for crisis public relations is inherently unethical.
In the face of accusations from various parties, David Zabosky, Amazon ’s chief legal counsel, finally chose to “carry all by himself”. He said in a statement to VICE that the “comments are personal “Emotional”, “I let my emotions control my words and prevail.”
This article comes from the WeChat public account: Big Data Abstracts (ID: yysaag) , author: Cao Peixin, the original title of the article:” the dismissal by the name of the epidemic strike leader! Amazon executive meeting minutes were exposed, chief legal officer: who made him an honest man “