Amazon Employees Protest Company’s Firing Of Worker For Spending Extra Hour With Dying Relative

Amazon workers are livid over the company’s termination of an employee who spent one extra hour with her dying mother-in-law.

Newsweek reports:

“Amazon workers at the company’s Sacramento, California delivery location united to present a petition to their supervisor September 30 to protest the company’s off-time policy, according to The Verge.

The workers were inspired by a former colleague identified only as Sandra, who says she was fired after a bedside vigil for her mother-in-law, even though she kept in communication with her supervisor at Amazon. When her mother-in-law passed away and Sandra returned to work to request bereavement leave, she was informed by her boss that she had overdrawn her off-time balance by one hour before her bereavement leave set in.

‘I felt like I was in The Twilight Zone,’ Sandra told The Verge. ‘I’m dealing with a death in my family, and I’m going to lose my job over one hour?’

[Steel Mill In State That Voted For Trump Closes Suddenly, Leaving Hundreds Jobless]

In response to Sandra’s firing, co-workers at her delivery location organized the Amazonians United Sacramento, and on September 30 unified to present a petition to Amazon Human Resources and the site manager demanding workers be given paid time off and Sandra be rehired.

‘While Amazon is a trillion dollar company run by the richest man in the world, permanent part-time employees working 8 hour shifts are only allowed 10 days off a year for any reason,’ the letter reads in part. ‘This means that every day we use [unpaid time off] for family emergencies, sickness, or vacation, we are one step closer to termination.'”

For the rest of the story, visit Newsweek here.

You may also like:

Join our mailing list for the latest union news!

Leave a Reply