Amazon Warehouse Whistleblower Fired by Bezos: Management
‘Told Me not to Tell the Employees’ of a Coronavirus Outbreak
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Amazon hid information of a coronavirus outbreak from employees at one of its distribution centers in New York City, said Chris Smalls, who was fired by Amazon after he blew the whistle on the outbreak at his warehouse and helped organize a walkout to protest the unsafe working conditions there.
Smalls spoke with SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight host Rebecca Mansour about the conditions at his warehouse that led to the walkout and his termination.
“At the beginning of March, we were unprotected,” said Smalls. “We didn’t have any facial masks, we didn’t have any cleaning supplies. We didn’t have the right type of gloves that protect our skin. My associates, my employees that I supervised were falling ill in a domino effect, one by one [with] flu-like symptoms. Some of them were even vomiting at their stations. It was very alarming to me. I started to raise my concerns to my local HR department.”
Smalls added, “We didn’t have any confirmed cases at the time, but I wanted to be proactive instead of reactive [in] dealing with something that we’d never dealt before, this virus. I was concerned. They pretty much swept it under the rug because we didn’t have any safety guidelines implemented at the time. We didn’t have any cases; we were nonchalant about it.”
“So I fought behind the scenes,” Smalls continued. “I sent emails out to the CDC, to the health department, to the government of New York try to get the building closed down, quarantined for two weeks, because what I’d seen hand-in-hand and face-to-face was my employees and my colleagues around me begin to fall sick.”
“I had to go back to work,” Smalls remarked. “I took some time off to protect myself, protect my family, my kids. After a while, I was like, no, this unpaid policy that Amazon’s offering is basically you don’t get paid time [off]. You can stay home as long as you want, but you don’t get paid for it. It wasn’t really an option for me. I had to pay my bills.
‘Told Me not to Tell the Employees’ of a Coronavirus Outbreak
< >
Amazon hid information of a coronavirus outbreak from employees at one of its distribution centers in New York City, said Chris Smalls, who was fired by Amazon after he blew the whistle on the outbreak at his warehouse and helped organize a walkout to protest the unsafe working conditions there.
Smalls spoke with SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight host Rebecca Mansour about the conditions at his warehouse that led to the walkout and his termination.
“At the beginning of March, we were unprotected,” said Smalls. “We didn’t have any facial masks, we didn’t have any cleaning supplies. We didn’t have the right type of gloves that protect our skin. My associates, my employees that I supervised were falling ill in a domino effect, one by one [with] flu-like symptoms. Some of them were even vomiting at their stations. It was very alarming to me. I started to raise my concerns to my local HR department.”
Smalls added, “We didn’t have any confirmed cases at the time, but I wanted to be proactive instead of reactive [in] dealing with something that we’d never dealt before, this virus. I was concerned. They pretty much swept it under the rug because we didn’t have any safety guidelines implemented at the time. We didn’t have any cases; we were nonchalant about it.”
“So I fought behind the scenes,” Smalls continued. “I sent emails out to the CDC, to the health department, to the government of New York try to get the building closed down, quarantined for two weeks, because what I’d seen hand-in-hand and face-to-face was my employees and my colleagues around me begin to fall sick.”
“I had to go back to work,” Smalls remarked. “I took some time off to protect myself, protect my family, my kids. After a while, I was like, no, this unpaid policy that Amazon’s offering is basically you don’t get paid time [off]. You can stay home as long as you want, but you don’t get paid for it. It wasn’t really an option for me. I had to pay my bills.
