A top Amazon software engineer said he resigned last week in response to the e-commerce giantβs termination of workers who raised concerns about conditions in its warehouses amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tim Bray, who reportedly worked in Vancouver as a vice president and senior engineer for the companyβs Amazon Web Services cloud division, wrote in a blog post that remaining at the company would mean effectively βsigning off on actions I despised.β
βSo I resigned,β Bray wrote.
As consumers heeded government directives to stay home and practice social distancing in recent weeks, Amazon faced a surge in demand for essential products that could be delivered to shoppersβ doorsteps. But the company also came under fire for the working conditions at its massive distribution centers during a viral outbreak.
A worker who organized a protest at Amazonβs Staten Island facility was fired in late March, and two vocal critics of the companyβs coronavirus response and climate policies were fired in mid-April. Bray pointed to three other terminations, as well as threats made months earlier to organizers of an employee group that sought to influence the companyβs environmental practices.
Amazon has said it has βtaken extreme measures to keep people safeβ and argued the fired workers had violated company policies.
Bray, however, wrote that βit was clear to any reasonable observer that they were turfed for whistleblowing.β
He noted he was βpretty blueβ over his decision, which he argued would cost him more than $1 million in salary and stock, βnot to mention the best job Iβve ever had.β But he also said heβs βbreathing more freelyβ after resigning.
βAt the end of the day, the big problem isnβt the specifics of COVID-19 response,β Bray wrote. βItβs that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only thatβs not just Amazon, itβs how 21st century capitalism is done.β
Amazon did not comment on Brayβs resignation, according to Bloomberg.