Amazon VP resigns, slams company for 'chickensh*t' firing of whistleblowers in viral open letter
A high profile Amazon engineer and vice president resigned on Friday and followed it up with a scathing open letter accusing the e-commerce giant of firing whistleblowers who were complaining about unsafe working conditions at their warehouses.
Tim Bray, a highly respected software developer who is one of the co-authors of the original XML specification, titled the letter "Bye, Amazon" before posting it to his personal blog.
According to Bray, who served as VP of Amazon Web Services, detailed in the letter how employees were given the ax after they circulated a petition demanding COVID-19 related workplace protections., Mediaite reports.
Two of the petition organizers were allegedly "fired on the spot" on April 10, after they sent out an email announcing a video conference to discuss workplace conditions slated for April 16. “The justifications [from the company] were laughable; it was clear to any reasonable observer that they were turfed for whistleblowing,” Bray wrote.
He also listed six of the employees who were relieved of their duties, before accusing the global behemoth of racial and gender discriminations over their firings.
“I’m sure it’s a coincidence that every one of them is a person of color, a woman, or both. Right?” Bray wrote. "Here are some descriptive phrases you might use to describe the activist-firing," he continued in his letter. "Chickens--t, Kill the messenger, Never heard of the Streisand effect."
Bray also said the dismissal s were "designed to create a climate of fear."
“Like painting a sign on your forehead saying ‘Either guilty, or has something to hide,'" he added. However, he later retracted the "chickens--t" insult, saying it was "mean-spirited."
Nonetheless, Bray's impassioned letter seemed to have caught the eye of some other tech giants, including Google, Comcast, and Huawei. "Recruiters so far: Google, Comcast, Huawei. And a bunch of startups," Bray tweeted on Monday, adding he's not currently looking for work. This comes just days after reports that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has increased his already vast fortune by over $24B during the coronavirus pandemic, which is roughly a 20% increase over the last four months.
Meanwhile, the conglomerate's workers are protesting the retail giant's decision to end the unlimited, unpaid time off program it has enforced during the coronavirus outbreak.
Bezos owns an 11% stake in Amazon and has been the world’s richest person since 2017. His net worth has grown to $143.1B, nearly $40B more than the world's second-richest man Bill Gates, and almost twice that of Warren Buffett.
During last month's three-day stock market rally — the best since 1933 — Bezos benefitted as Amazon's share price recovered almost all of its losses in the month to trade at roughly $1,920 per share. He also sold a large portion of his Amazon shares in February, before the scale of the coronavirus crisis was fully acknowledged and before the stock market collapsed.
However, while Bezos reaps the benefits of the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon's workers are questioning the company's business and labor practices more than ever as they bring to light the conditions that are affecting them adversely.