Amazon is said to have fired at least six New York executives involved in union | Amazon

Amazon has reportedly fired over half a dozen senior executives involved in a warehouse association in New York.

The firings, which took place outside the company’s employee rating cycle, were seen as the company’s response to the Amazon Labor Union formed in Staten Island last month in a “historic victory” against the country’s second largest employer, the New York Times reported. quotes former and current employees who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Most of the leaders who were fired were responsible for carrying out Amazon̵[ads1]7;s response to union work, the New York Times reported. According to their LinkedIn profiles reviewed by the Times, some of the leaders in the company were for more than six years.

Amazon said the changes were made after evaluating the warehouse’s “operations and management” for several weeks.

“Part of our culture at Amazon is to continually improve, and we think it’s important to take the time to consider whether we’re doing the best we can for our team,” the spokesman said.

The leaders were fired due to an “organizational change”, two employees told the Times. It was said that some of the leaders had recently received positive results reviews.

In April, Amazon workers at the Staten Island department store voted by a majority to form a union. The victory marked the first successful American organizational effort in the company’s history. Organizers have faced an uphill battle against Amazon, which now employs more than one million people in the United States and does everything to keep unions out.

Christian Smalls, who heads the Amazon Labor Union, said on Twitter that he had met with President Joe Biden shortly after he criticized Amazon harshly during his testimony during a Senate hearing on Thursday.

Union-friendly workers sought longer breaks, paid free for injured employees and an hourly wage of $ 30, up from a minimum of just over $ 18 per hour offered by the company. The estimated average wage for the borough is $ 41 per hour, according to a similar U.S. Census Bureau analysis of the State of Iceland’s median income of $ 85,381.

Amazon has said it is investing in wages and benefits, such as health care, 401 (k) plans and a prepaid tuition program to help grow workers’ careers.

“As a company, we do not believe unions are the best answer for our employees,” a spokesman said after the union’s victory. “Our focus is still on working directly with our team to continue to make Amazon a great place to work.”

Earlier this week, storage workers from Amazon at another Staten Island warehouse overwhelmingly rejected a union bid, hitting organizers who withdrew from the Staten Island union last month.

The organizers said that they had lost some support in the warehouse after running for an election in February because they directed more energy to the nearby facility that voted to become a union last month. There were also fewer organizers working in this facility – about 10, compared to the nearly 30 employees at the Staten Island warehouse.

The same obstacles that plagued the effort the first time, including Amazon’s aggressive anti-union tactics, were at play again. In the run-up to the election, Amazon continued to hold mandatory meetings to persuade its workers to reject union efforts, launching leaflets against unions and launching a website urging workers to “vote NO”.

“Right now, ALU is trying to get between our relationship with you,” it says in a post on the website. “They think they can do a better job for you than you do for yourself.”