This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/nyregion/coronavirus-nyc-chris-smalls-amazon.html
The article has changed 16 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 10 | Version 11 |
|---|---|
| ‘We Didn’t Sign Up for This’: Amazon Workers on the Front Lines | ‘We Didn’t Sign Up for This’: Amazon Workers on the Front Lines |
| (8 days later) | |
| As if in the darkest children’s fable ever told, the undisputed winner of the current plague turns out to be the man who already had everything, the king whose empire appears intent on consuming the entire map. This week Jeff Bezos, the richest man on earth, saw the year’s first financial quarter close with Amazon stock up more than 5 percent, trading at $1,950 a share, during a period in which the Dow had its worst overall quarter since 1987. | As if in the darkest children’s fable ever told, the undisputed winner of the current plague turns out to be the man who already had everything, the king whose empire appears intent on consuming the entire map. This week Jeff Bezos, the richest man on earth, saw the year’s first financial quarter close with Amazon stock up more than 5 percent, trading at $1,950 a share, during a period in which the Dow had its worst overall quarter since 1987. |
| If Amazon previously had us addicted to its services as convenience, it now has us reliant on them as necessity. It may be that before the emergence of the coronavirus, you were trying to break the habit — making a greater effort to shop at the stores in your neighborhood. But now those stores are closed, some of them forever, while the presence of other human beings delivers its own terror, and so Amazon has come to seem more like a utility, as essential as a municipal water supply. | If Amazon previously had us addicted to its services as convenience, it now has us reliant on them as necessity. It may be that before the emergence of the coronavirus, you were trying to break the habit — making a greater effort to shop at the stores in your neighborhood. But now those stores are closed, some of them forever, while the presence of other human beings delivers its own terror, and so Amazon has come to seem more like a utility, as essential as a municipal water supply. |
| Over the past two weeks I have easily bought more from Amazon than I had during the previous 20: laundry detergent, Neosporin, books, tea, hand weights, instant oatmeal, a recorder that my son needed for his music class at school. | Over the past two weeks I have easily bought more from Amazon than I had during the previous 20: laundry detergent, Neosporin, books, tea, hand weights, instant oatmeal, a recorder that my son needed for his music class at school. |
| In order to meet the demands of a country in which homes must suddenly be retrofitted to accommodate classrooms, co-working spaces, gyms, hair salons and so on, Amazon announced last month that it would hire 100,000 additional workers in its fulfillment centers and delivery networks, jobs for which many people will be desperate, given the decimated state of the retail and service industries. | In order to meet the demands of a country in which homes must suddenly be retrofitted to accommodate classrooms, co-working spaces, gyms, hair salons and so on, Amazon announced last month that it would hire 100,000 additional workers in its fulfillment centers and delivery networks, jobs for which many people will be desperate, given the decimated state of the retail and service industries. |
| What awaits these workers? It would be easier to make peace with the company’s crisis-fueled colonization of the marketplace if we could be assured that hourly workers were reaping big rewards given the risk of the jobs. But instead workers feel unsupported in the most fundamental ways. | What awaits these workers? It would be easier to make peace with the company’s crisis-fueled colonization of the marketplace if we could be assured that hourly workers were reaping big rewards given the risk of the jobs. But instead workers feel unsupported in the most fundamental ways. |
| Though the company has increased pay by $2 an hour, employees around the country at Amazon warehouses and its subsidiary, Whole Foods, have been staging walkouts to demand better health protections during the pandemic. | Though the company has increased pay by $2 an hour, employees around the country at Amazon warehouses and its subsidiary, Whole Foods, have been staging walkouts to demand better health protections during the pandemic. |
| For years, Amazon has resisted the efforts of organized labor. On Monday the company fired a dissenting worker, Christian Smalls, at a fulfillment center in Staten Island. He was let go almost immediately after he led a group of colleagues from the building during lunch hour in protest of what they saw as the company’s inadequate response to the crisis. They were calling simply for the building to be temporarily closed and more stringently sanitized and for workers to be paid during the hiatus as several had become sick. | For years, Amazon has resisted the efforts of organized labor. On Monday the company fired a dissenting worker, Christian Smalls, at a fulfillment center in Staten Island. He was let go almost immediately after he led a group of colleagues from the building during lunch hour in protest of what they saw as the company’s inadequate response to the crisis. They were calling simply for the building to be temporarily closed and more stringently sanitized and for workers to be paid during the hiatus as several had become sick. |
| Not content merely to fire Mr. Smalls, executives planned to exploit him as part of a public-relations strategy meant to deflect attention away from safety issues. Internal notes from a meeting of executive leaders at Amazon obtained by Vice News reveal the company’s general counsel David Zaplosky calling Mr. Smalls “not smart or articulate” and thus a useful tool in its ongoing plan to besmirch unionization efforts. | Not content merely to fire Mr. Smalls, executives planned to exploit him as part of a public-relations strategy meant to deflect attention away from safety issues. Internal notes from a meeting of executive leaders at Amazon obtained by Vice News reveal the company’s general counsel David Zaplosky calling Mr. Smalls “not smart or articulate” and thus a useful tool in its ongoing plan to besmirch unionization efforts. |
| “We should spend the first part of our response strongly laying out the case for why the organizer’s conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal,” Mr. Zaplosky wrote. referring to Mr. Smalls, “and only then follow with our usual talking points about worker safety.” | “We should spend the first part of our response strongly laying out the case for why the organizer’s conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal,” Mr. Zaplosky wrote. referring to Mr. Smalls, “and only then follow with our usual talking points about worker safety.” |
| The Staten Island warehouse employs 5,000 people who come from all over New York and New Jersey. The potential multiplier effect is especially worrisome in this instance because the facility, 12 miles from the ferry that links Staten Island to Manhattan, is not easily accessible and many employees are forced to take several modes of public transportation to get there, in commutes that often last 90 minutes or more. | The Staten Island warehouse employs 5,000 people who come from all over New York and New Jersey. The potential multiplier effect is especially worrisome in this instance because the facility, 12 miles from the ferry that links Staten Island to Manhattan, is not easily accessible and many employees are forced to take several modes of public transportation to get there, in commutes that often last 90 minutes or more. |
| Amazon disputed that Mr. Smalls was terminated for his agitation. A spokeswoman for the company, Kristen Kish, said rather that he was let go because he had returned to work to conduct the demonstration even though he was in the midst of a paid 14-day quarantine after coming into contact with someone at the facility who was sick. “We terminated his employment for putting the health and safety of others at risk and violations of his terms of his employment,” Ms Kish said. | Amazon disputed that Mr. Smalls was terminated for his agitation. A spokeswoman for the company, Kristen Kish, said rather that he was let go because he had returned to work to conduct the demonstration even though he was in the midst of a paid 14-day quarantine after coming into contact with someone at the facility who was sick. “We terminated his employment for putting the health and safety of others at risk and violations of his terms of his employment,” Ms Kish said. |
| Soon after the demonstration, Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, and Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an investigation into Mr. Smalls’ dismissal. By Wednesday, the country’s most prominent union heads and more than 40 local political leaders demanded that Amazon reinstate Mr. Smalls. | Soon after the demonstration, Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, and Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an investigation into Mr. Smalls’ dismissal. By Wednesday, the country’s most prominent union heads and more than 40 local political leaders demanded that Amazon reinstate Mr. Smalls. |
| In a letter to Mr. Bezos, the labor leaders also addressed concerns that conditions at Amazon warehouses were unsafe: workers there were “reporting crowded spaces, a required rate of work that does not allow for proper sanitizing of work spaces, and empty containers meant to hold sanitizing wipes.’’ | In a letter to Mr. Bezos, the labor leaders also addressed concerns that conditions at Amazon warehouses were unsafe: workers there were “reporting crowded spaces, a required rate of work that does not allow for proper sanitizing of work spaces, and empty containers meant to hold sanitizing wipes.’’ |
| It was during the first week in March, Mr. Smalls told me, that he began to notice various colleagues coming to work seeming unwell: fatigued, lightheaded, nauseous. He took his concerns to the human resources people in the facility, he said, who told him that the company was following guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that there were no confirmed cases of Covid-19 at the warehouse. | It was during the first week in March, Mr. Smalls told me, that he began to notice various colleagues coming to work seeming unwell: fatigued, lightheaded, nauseous. He took his concerns to the human resources people in the facility, he said, who told him that the company was following guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that there were no confirmed cases of Covid-19 at the warehouse. |
| Mr. Smalls — a 31-year-old father of three who was reasonably worried about becoming ill himself — took several days off without pay, drawing $500 from his 401(k) to get by in the interim. | Mr. Smalls — a 31-year-old father of three who was reasonably worried about becoming ill himself — took several days off without pay, drawing $500 from his 401(k) to get by in the interim. |
| Later in the month, one of his colleagues, Barbara Chandler, tested positive for the coronavirus. She was advised by those in human resources at the facility to keep the news on the “down low,’’ she told me. Frustrated by what he perceived as the company’s lack of transparency, Mr. Smalls made it his mission to disseminate information about cases of Covid-19 at the warehouse. | Later in the month, one of his colleagues, Barbara Chandler, tested positive for the coronavirus. She was advised by those in human resources at the facility to keep the news on the “down low,’’ she told me. Frustrated by what he perceived as the company’s lack of transparency, Mr. Smalls made it his mission to disseminate information about cases of Covid-19 at the warehouse. |
| Amazon insists that its focus is worker safety. In a statement on Thursday, Dave Clark, senior vice president of worldwide operations at Amazon wrote: “Nothing is more important to us than making sure that we protect the health of our teams, and we’ve been working around the clock since the early days of the outbreak to make changes to our processes and procure the necessary supplies for this. To date, we’ve made over 150 significant process changes to ensure the health and safety of our teams.” | Amazon insists that its focus is worker safety. In a statement on Thursday, Dave Clark, senior vice president of worldwide operations at Amazon wrote: “Nothing is more important to us than making sure that we protect the health of our teams, and we’ve been working around the clock since the early days of the outbreak to make changes to our processes and procure the necessary supplies for this. To date, we’ve made over 150 significant process changes to ensure the health and safety of our teams.” |
| Updated August 12, 2020 | |
| Given that Amazon has still not closed the Staten Island facility for a few days of intensive cleaning, Mr. Smalls has been writing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, hoping he will mandate a shut down. | Given that Amazon has still not closed the Staten Island facility for a few days of intensive cleaning, Mr. Smalls has been writing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, hoping he will mandate a shut down. |
| There is a precedent. Last week Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky ordered the temporary closure of a midsize Amazon fulfillment center there after three workers tested positive for the coronavirus. On Wednesday, workers at another facility near Detroit staged a walkout calling for the company to let workers go home while the warehouse got an intensive disinfection. | There is a precedent. Last week Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky ordered the temporary closure of a midsize Amazon fulfillment center there after three workers tested positive for the coronavirus. On Wednesday, workers at another facility near Detroit staged a walkout calling for the company to let workers go home while the warehouse got an intensive disinfection. |
| Rather than disrupt the flow of merchandise out of its Staten Island warehouse, not all of which would meet criteria for urgency, Amazon instead began screening the temperatures of employees entering the facility on Sunday, an initiative it has since scaled up at other facilities, but one that does little to safeguard workers from those who might have contracted the virus but remain asymptomatic. | Rather than disrupt the flow of merchandise out of its Staten Island warehouse, not all of which would meet criteria for urgency, Amazon instead began screening the temperatures of employees entering the facility on Sunday, an initiative it has since scaled up at other facilities, but one that does little to safeguard workers from those who might have contracted the virus but remain asymptomatic. |
| Like many of us who are so grateful for the efforts of Amazon workers to bring us what we need right now, the company’s public relations strategy has invoked language of bravery and valiance to describe the labor of people who in so many cases have been exploited by an economy that has given them few opportunities. | Like many of us who are so grateful for the efforts of Amazon workers to bring us what we need right now, the company’s public relations strategy has invoked language of bravery and valiance to describe the labor of people who in so many cases have been exploited by an economy that has given them few opportunities. |
| Dismissing the notion that many employees were aggrieved by Amazon’s handling of the pandemic, Ms. Kish pointed out that, “the vast majority” continue to show up every day and do “heroic work.” | Dismissing the notion that many employees were aggrieved by Amazon’s handling of the pandemic, Ms. Kish pointed out that, “the vast majority” continue to show up every day and do “heroic work.” |
| Mr. Smalls sees things differently. “They keep saying we’re like the Red Cross,” he told me. “We’re not. We’re regular people and we didn’t sign up for this.” | Mr. Smalls sees things differently. “They keep saying we’re like the Red Cross,” he told me. “We’re not. We’re regular people and we didn’t sign up for this.” |