“It’s a matter of fact that workers are saying they’re at risk in the warehouses,” Bray said, adding that he did not feel the media has done “a terribly good job of telling their stories.”
After attempting to raise his concerns through “the proper channels,” Bray said that he felt his only choice was to resign.
“Firing whistleblowers isn’t just a side-effect of macroeconomic forces, nor is it intrinsic to the function of free markets,” he said. “It’s evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison.”
“With big-tech salaries and share vestings, this will probably cost me over a million (pre-tax) dollars, not to mention the best job I’ve ever had, working with awfully good people. So I’m pretty blue,” he said.
“The victims weren’t abstract entities but real people,” Bray wrote in his blog post. “Here are some of their names: Courtney Bowden, Gerald Bryson, Maren Costa, Emily Cunningham, Bashir Mohammed, and Chris Smalls.”
“I’m sure it’s a coincidence that every one of them is a person of color, a woman, or both. Right?” Bray added.
Cunningham’s termination had come after she repeatedly spoke out on social media against the e-commerce giant’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, including tweets accusing the company of putting workers and the public at risk.
“We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies,” the spokesperson said.
In their list of demands, workers called on their companies to provide hazard pay, introduce better-paid leave policies and strengthen communication regarding sick employees. They also called on companies to do more to ensure that employees who are still coming into work every day are able to work in safe conditions that allow for social distancing and access to sanitation.
