(New York Post) A high-ranking engineer at Amazon has resigned in protest of the company’s treatment of warehouse workers.
Tim Bray, a VP and distinguished engineer at AWS, said in a public blog post titled “Bye, Amazon” that he could no longer stand to work at a “chickens–t” company that fires dissenters in an effort “designed to create a climate of fear.”
“I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19,” Bray wrote.
He said that listening to worker accounts of what life is like in Amazon’s warehouses during the coronavirus pandemic was difficult to stomach, and that he “snapped” when they fired the activists.
After escalating his concerns through internal channels, citing his belief that “VPs shouldn’t go publicly rogue,” Bray decided to leave.
“Remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised,” he said. “So I resigned.”
Leaving now, Bray said, means abandoning nearly $1 million in salary and vesting shares.
The company’s warehouses in areas hit hardest by the coronavirus — including New York, Detroit and Chicago — have seen protests amid reports that dozens of warehouse workers have fallen ill.
