Amazon fired women for complaining on Twitter about job security in pandemic

Two women who worked for Amazon were fired for publicly airing company problems without the authorization of their superiors

Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON / Getty Images

Last year, the company of billionaire Jeff Bezos , illegally fired two of his employees for publicly criticize the company , a retaliation that is not allowed by US law, according to the US National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency.

One of the affected former workers who was contacted by The New York Times, pointed out that the board in charge of protecting the rights of private sector workers, notified her and her partner that she will present charges against Amazon if they do not offer compensation .

Emily Cunningham, who was fired in mid-April last year along with her Comrade Maren Costa, declared to the newspaper, “It is a mor al and shows that we are on the right side of history and on the right side of the law ”.

Both women worked as user experience designers for Amazon and on several occasions posted on Twitter about their disagreements with the operation of the Seattle company , both on issues of environmental policies such as protection and occupational safety.

During the first wave of coronavirus infections in the United States, Cunningham and Costa expressed their dissatisfaction with the response that Amazon was adopting in the face of the Covid pandemic – 19 and held the company was not doing enough to guarantee the safety and health of the employees , especially with the delivery men and the workers warehouse workers.

The company, owned by Jeff Bezos, did not like this attitude and justified the dismissals by arguing that the workers had “violated internal corporate regulations”, which prevents employees from speaking publicly about internal matters without authorization from their superiors.