Amazon fires 2 tech employees who raised coronavirus, climate concerns

A few months ago, it might’ve been hard to imagine a scenario where someone would be fired in front of her 13-year-old son.

But that just happened to Amazon employee Maren Costa while working from home in Seattle.

Costa and fellow user experience designer Emily Cunningham were leaders of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group of pushing the company to reduce its carbon emissions.

Both were fired Friday.

Costa said a 60-second video call with her boss’ boss and a human resources representative ended her 15-year Amazon career.

“They are trying to fire the most visible leaders in an effort to silence everyone,” Costa said.

Costa and Cunningham had been warned in October against speaking publicly about their employer.

The two were fired after forwarding a petition to coworkers. It urged hazard pay, paid sick leave and subsidized childcare for warehouse workers and better measures to keep coronavirus from spreading through Amazon warehouses.

Their group also invited Amazon colleagues to a virtual meeting where techies could hear warehouse workers’ concerns about coronavirus safety.

Costa said they had gotten 1,000 “accepts” when Amazon officials learned of the event and erased it from everyone’s calendars.

Amazon workers at multiple warehouses have gotten infected. Some have gone on strike for safer conditions.

Amazon has also fired a New York warehouse employee who led a walkout and a Minnesota worker who had pushed for more thorough cleaning at warehouses.

Amazon officials declined to be interviewed.

“We’re doing all that we can to protect our employees and take the proper precautions as stated in WHO guidelines,” Amazon spokesperson Jaci Anderson said in an emailed statement.

World Health Organization guidelines include staying 3 feet away from anyone coughing or sneezing. U.S. health officials recommend 6 feet of social distancing. Some researchers recommend much more.

Amazon publicity materials show signs at warehouses urging workers to stay 6 feet apart “whenever possible.”

“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,” Anderson’s email states. “We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.”

Costa said she was told she was fired for violating Amazon’s policy against soliciting signatures or funds with company email. She said she didn’t know Amazon had an anti-solicitation policy.

“Everyone does that," she said. "‘Hey, can you contribute to my Movember campaign?’ ‘I’m doing a bike ride for cancer.’ This happens all the time.”

Costa said her son Van was in the next room when she took the call from HR.

“He heard the whole thing,” Costa said. “He gave me a hug and said, ‘Did you just get fired?’”

Van asked if she regretted it.

“I said, ‘No, absolutely not, I’m doing this for you guys.’”

Costa said climate change and coronavirus -- the two global crises she has agitated around – have a connection.

“They both affect disadvantaged communities and people who’ve already been abandoned by the system more heavily,” she said.

Costa said warehouses, and the big trucks that serve them, are concentrated in communities of color.

“In those same neighborhoods, the pollution is really high, which increases the chances of asthma and lung damage, which then increases the chances that you could be infected by Covid,” she said.”

A new study by Harvard University biostatisticians found that a small increase in long-term exposure to the fine, sooty particles in smoke and engine exhaust leads to a large increase in the Covid-19 death rate. Their work was pre-published on April 5 and has not been peer-reviewed.

CORRECTION, April 15, 2020, 9 a.m.: An earlier version misstated Costa's role in a group meeting and the date of Amazon's prior warning against publicly criticizing the firm.