Former Amazon Executive And Engineer Blasts Company For 'Whistleblower' Firings

Former Amazon VP and Web Services engineer Tim Bray blasted the company in a personal blog post over recent firings of warehouse and office workers that had spoken out against Amazon.

“May 1st was my last day as a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services, after five years and five months of rewarding fun,” Bray said in the post. “I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19.”

Amazon’s reported treatment of its employees during the coronavirus pandemic has become a point of criticism. Some of the treatment included a lack of protective gear, continuing to work in close environments, and reportedly not informing workers about who had tested positive. These conditions, in turn, have led to various protests by workers demanding better treatment.

One of the most notable protests during coronavirus pandemic was a walkout by employees at Amazon’s New York warehouse in March. The walkout’s organizer, Chris Smalls, was subsequently fired for “violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk.”

Bray said his breaking point were the firings of Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, two prominent figures within Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. The group formed in 2019 to push for Amazon to put its resources behind fighting climate change. An open letter was then sent in April 2019 to Jeff Bezos and the Amazon Board of Directors and gathered 8,702 signatures, including Tim Bray.

Cunningham and Costa’s firings followed warehouse workers reaching out to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice for their support with protests.

“They responded by internally promoting a petition and organizing a video call for Thursday April 16 featuring warehouse workers from around the world, with guest activist Naomi Klein,” Bray said. “An announcement sent to internal mailing lists on Friday April 10th was apparently the flashpoint. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, two visible AECJ leaders, were fired on the spot that day. The justifications were laughable; it was clear to any reasonable observer that they were turfed for whistleblowing.”

Bray subsequently resigned on May 1, saying he made many of the arguments in his post through “the proper channels and by the book.”

“I’m not at liberty to disclose those discussions, but I made many of the arguments appearing in this essay. I think I made them to the appropriate people,” Bray said.

He also offered several “descriptive phrases” that could be used when talking about the firings, including “chickens**t” and “kill the messenger.”

“At the end of the day, it’s all about power balances. The warehouse workers are weak and getting weaker, what with mass unemployment and (in the US) job-linked health insurance. So they’re gonna get treated like crap, because capitalism. Any plausible solution has to start with increasing their collective strength,” Bray said to close the post.