Tim Bray, a top engineer and vice-president at Amazon, announced on Monday he is resigning “in dismay” over the company’s firing of employee activists who criticized working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Bray’s resignation comes as Amazon faces increased scrutiny and employee activism surrounding its internal response to coronavirus. Amazon workers on Friday participated in a nationwide sick-out to protest against poor working conditions and inadequate safety protections, claiming the company has failed to provide enough face masks for workers, did not implement regular temperature checks it promised at warehouses, and has refused to give workers paid sick leave.
In a blogpost explaining his resignation, Bray called the firings of organizers at the company “chickenshit”, and said they were “designed to create a climate of fear”. In resigning, Bray has become the highest-ranking corporate employee at Amazon to publicly speak out about worker conditions.
“Remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised,” Bray, who had worked at the company for nearly six years, said.
The Guardian previously published Bray’s blogpost in full under Creative Commons licensing, but took it down at his request.
Bray cited the experiences of Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa – two user experience designers at Amazon who were fired in April after publicly denouncing the treatment of warehouse workers.
Bray also cited activism among warehouse workers themselves, including actions from Courtney Bowden, Gerald Bryson, Bashir Mohammed and Chris Smalls – all of whom were fired after organizing.
A leaked memo obtained by Vice News showed how an Amazon executive denigrated Smalls, who had helped organize an action at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse, labeling him as “not smart or articulate” in a meeting with Jeff Bezos.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment, but previously cited violations of internal policies as reasons for dismissing these employees.
Amazon made more than $33m per hour in the first three months of the year, according to earnings reports last week, boosted by consumers on lockdown ordering supplies to be delivered to home. The chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos, who was already the richest man in the world, has personally seen his fortune swell by $13bn this month to $145bn.
“At the end of the day, the big problem isn’t the specifics of Covid-19 response,” Bray said. “It’s that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only that’s not just Amazon, it’s how 21st-century capitalism is done.”