NEWARK, N.J. - U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.), along with Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), today pressed Amazon on the treatment and safety of its front-line warehouse workers, and repeated their call for the tech giant to temporarily close any warehouses where a worker tests positive for COVID-19.
Additionally, the lawmakers questioned Amazon over its abrupt termination last week of one of its warehouse employees.
While the company claimed the firing stemmed from the worker violating a mandatory quarantine, circumstances surrounding the sudden termination – which include an apparent smear campaign orchestrated by company executives to discredit the employee – seem to indicate he was fired in retaliation for organizing a protest against the company over its lack of protections for workers.
“We write to express our continued concern about working conditions at Amazon as well as recent actions Amazon has taken, including the recent firing of an Amazon warehouse employee who was involved in organizing their coworkers for stronger workplace protections at the facility in Staten Island, NY,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent today to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. “The right to organize is a bedrock of our economy, responsible for many of the greatest advances achieved by workers over generations. Adding to our concern are leaked meeting notes from a meeting you attended, where top executives at Amazon designed a smear campaign to discredit the fired employee.”
“Any failure of Amazon to keep its workers safe does not just put their employees at risk, it puts the entire country at risk,” the lawmakers added.
In the letter to Bezos, the Senators asked the CEO to reply to the following questions by April 14:
Full text of the letter is available here.
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