Amazon vice president resigns over protester firings, condemning company's 'climate of fear'

A vice president at Amazon has resigned in protest of the company, accusing it of firing whistleblowers to create a "climate of fear."

Tim Bray, an Amazon Web Services senior engineer and vice president, announced that after five years with the company, "I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of COVID-19," Vice News reports.

Amazon in recent weeks has fired numerous employees who spoke out and protested against the company for allegedly not taking adequate precautions to protect warehouse workers during the coronavirus crisis, although Amazon has said "we respect the rights of employees to protest" and cited other reasons for the firings. In March, for instance, the company fired Chris Smalls, who organized a protest in New York against Amazon. Smalls alleged his firing was retaliation, but Amazon cited "multiple safety issues."

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In his announcement, Bray named Smalls and other Amazon workers who have been fired, including two who also criticized the company's climate policies. He described the company's alleged "activist-firing" as "chickensh-t," "designed to create a climate of fear," and "like painting a sign on your forehead saying 'either guilty, or has something to hide,'" also saying it reveals a "vein of toxicity running through the company culture."

Bray also wrote that, "at the end of the day, the big problem isn't the specifics of COVID-19 response. It's that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential." Amazon has not responded to Bray's resignation but previously said it has "taken extreme measures to keep people safe" during the pandemic.