Amazon Executives Privately Insulted a Warehouse Worker, Then Attacked Him on Twitter
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Amazon executives privately insulted a warehouse worker, then attacked him on Twitter:
After firing Chris Smalls, who helped organize a warehouse worker strike at Amazon's Staten Island, New York facility over novel coronavirus safety, Amazon executives publicly attacked him on Twitter. Now we might know why. Leaked meeting notes obtained by Vice Newslay out a plan for executives to smear Smalls and make him the focus of the company's effort to discredit a growing labor movement inside the company.
"He's not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we're trying to protect workers," said David Zapolsky, Amazon's general counsel, in the meeting notes, which Vice News reports were forwarded throughout the company.
"We should spend the first part of our response strongly laying out the case for why the organizer's conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal, in detail, and only then follow with our usual talking points about worker safety," Zapolsky continued. "Make him the most interesting part of the story, and if possible make him the face of the entire union/organizing movement."
Zapolsky confirmed the authenticity of the memo by explaining his comments: "I let my emotions draft my words and get the better of me," he said in a statement given to the The Verge.But instead of apologizing for denigrating Smalls, he continued to attack him using the same strategy outlined in his memo. "I was frustrated and upset that an Amazon employee would endanger the health and safety of other Amazonians by repeatedly returning to the premises after having been warned to quarantine himself after exposure to virus Covid-19," Zapolsky said.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company could not confirm or comment on the authenticity of any email or memo from Zapolsky.
Smalls helped organize the warehouse walkout that took place on Monday to protest the company's handling of COVID-19. Smalls and other workers were upset at how Amazon has been dealing with unsanitary warehouse working conditions in the event a worker is diagnosed with the illness.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.