E-commerce giant Amazon has terminated Christian Smalls, the worker who led the walkout at its Staten Island warehouse.
Amazon confirmed that it has fired uts Staten Island employee Christian Smalls, who led the walkout at the New York warehouse protesting the company's response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The company said Smalls was supposed to be under quarantine. Amazon spokesperson Kristen Kish stated: "Mr. Smalls was found to have had close contact with a diagnosed associate with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and was asked to remain home with pay for 14 days, which is a measure we're taking at sites around the world."
"Despite that instruction to stay home with pay, he came onsite today, March 30, putting the teams at risk," added Kish.
The protest, partly organized by Smalls, called on the company to close down the Staten Island facility for deep cleaning after multiple cases of the coronavirus emerged there.
Smalls, an assistant manager at the facility, claims that many more employees have tested positive for the virus at the facility than the company has publicly acknowledged. He says that as many as five to seven workers have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
In response to his termination, Smalls said he is being singled out for punishment it reflects a culture of apathy at Amazon.
He argued: "Everybody's been warning me that [this] might happen, so I kinda expected it. But for them to do it this way, and for the reasoning behind it, that tells you right there that they, number one, don't care about people, and number two, it's just a target, a straight up target."
New York Attorney General Letitia James reacted to Amazon's decision, saying that "it is disgraceful that Amazon would terminate an employee who bravely stood up to protect himself and his colleagues."
She pointed out: "At the height of a global pandemic, Chris Smalls and his colleagues publicly protested the lack of precautions that Amazon was taking to protect them from COVID-19."
"Today, Chris Smalls was fired. In New York, the right to organize is codified into law, and any retaliatory action by management related thereto is strictly prohibited."
