Amazon has fired several senior managers that were a part of the operations and leadership at JF8K, which is the company's facility in Staten Island, New York.
The said senior managers had recently voted to unionize.
Amazon Fires Senior Managers at JF8K
According to The New York Times, Amazon told the senior managers that it was going through an organizational change, but some of their colleagues viewed it as a punishment for the union's win at the facility.
The New York Times wrote that more than half a dozen senior managers were fired and that a lot of them had been tasked with responding to unionization efforts.
The move could mean that the senior managers were tasked with keeping the union from winning and that they were fired for failing to do so, but it could also mean that the senior managers had helped the union in some way and were fired for the outcome.
The second scenario would be a case for illegal retaliation.
Amazon's actions in the run-up to the election, during which employees voted to unionize, have been criticized by both the regulators and organizers.
The e-commerce giant has been accused of union-busting, preventing its employees from exercising their rights and firing employees in retaliation for organizing.
The company has contested the results of the election, saying that the union and the National Labor Relations board suppressed and influenced the union voters, according to The Verge.
Amazon firing underperforming staff is not unusual. A report from 2021 noted that Amazon's goal is to let go of its lowest-performing employees every year, sometimes without much warning.
However, some of the senior managers that were fired said that they had already gotten positive feedback about their performance at work and that the timing of the firings did not line up with Amazon's performance review cycle.
The e-commerce company told Engadget that it had spent time evaluating aspects of the operations and leadership at its Staten Island facility and, as a result, has made some management changes.
Amazon's Union Leader
In February, Amazon tried to arrest labor organizer Christian Smalls for bringing food to warehouse employees during a union drive.
On Saturday, May 6, Smalls spoke before the Senate and visited President Joe Biden at the White House.
According to TechCrunch, Smalls is the Amazon Labor Union president who led the JFK8 facility's union win.
He testified in a hearing for the Senate Committee on the Budget, Chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders. The hearing posed the question of whether tax dollars should support companies that violate labor laws.
Representatives from other groups like the Teamsters, Good Jobs First, and the Heritage Foundation joined the hearing too.
Smalls said in his opening statement that Amazon is breaking the law and intimidating people, and these actions traumatize workers in the country.
Smalls added that the workers want to feel that they have protection, and they want to feel that the US government allows them to use their constitutional rights to organize.
Across the United States, Amazon employees have accused the e-commerce giant of trying to quash labor organizing.
Related Article: Amazon Now Allows Warehouse Workers to Have Their Cell Phones With Them
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Written by Sophie Webster
