Amazon and Starbucks are among the companies that have been in the news for the unionization efforts of their employees. Two employees in a Staten Island warehouse have been fired for their role in the warehouse becoming the first in the country to be unionized.
Tristan Dutchin and Mat Cusick, both part of the Amazon Labor Union’s organizing committee, said they were fired by Amazon last week.
Both were part of the Amazon Labor Union, an upstart group led by current and former company employees, to organize workers at the Staten Island warehouse in New York.
The ALU had a big win when workers in the company’s largest warehouse in New York voted to join the labor union. The ALU has gained notoriety, inspiring others to unionize.
Dutchin, a package picker who has been with the company for almost a year, said he was fired at the end of his shift. The company cited his failure to meet productivity goals. He said he has received warnings from the company but received additional training as well as a compliment about his improved performance from his boss.
Cusick, the ALU’s communications director, said he was fired last week after going on leave for Covid-19. He said he was permitted to go on leave until April 29 but on April 30, he received an email from the company saying he has been absent from work for three days, which is grounds for firing. The next day, he was locked out of Amazon’s employee portal. He called the company’s resource center to get answers.
“I think the first person may have said I wasn’t terminated,” Cusick told CNBC. “I went from China, to India, to a few different teams in the U.S., and everybody had a different take on what was going on.”
He later received a letter from the company confirming that he had been fired for job abandonment.
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