Chris Smalls, fired from Amazon for fighting for workers’ health and safety during pandemic comments below.
I had been with the company since 2015. I opened up three major buildings, with my last location at Staten Island. In early March I started to raise health and safety issues, going through proper channels . . . after not getting the response I needed, I had to take further action [walkout] resulting in my termination. They said I was fired because I didn’t observe social distance guidelines.
Jeff Bezos is going to profit $30 Billion during this time. He puts profits above people, had no plan going into this . . . only meeting demands of their pockets, not demands of employees or customers which are all at risk. We raised concerns. Some were retaliated against. Some were terminated. Now they claim they’re spending $4 Billion, but what do you say to families [some workers died]. There’s no replacement on human life. They should be held accountable.
I’m now a full-blown employee with this activism . . . one of my many actions was May 1, a nationwide walkout, which included Whole Foods, Walmart, Instagram, Fed Ex. . . . we plan to do it again on June Teenth, Freedom Day . . . And I’m launching my own organization, T.C.O.E.W., which stands for The Congress of Essential Workers, a nationwide organization . . . employee driven, with union-wide structure of workforces like Amazon. If we accomplish that, other major corporations will fall in line too.
We are working class people, from the community. We are not the 1%, CEO’s, billionaires, higher ups. They are home in their million-dollar mansions away from these communities getting sick, the urban areas where black and brown make up 80% of their workforce. Until they are protected, don’t support these major corporations. Go to your mom and pop stores. Amazon is now on track to cancel hero pay. Sign petition to extend unlimited PPE and help people keep the $2 pay @Shut_downAmazon
Excerpted with permission from interview by The Benjamin Dixon Show.
http://peoplestribune.org/pt-news/2020/06/strikes-in-the-food-industry/
