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Retail Giant Amazon Under Fire on Several Fronts

VOA News

   Aworkerat Amazon's Staten Island fulfillment centerinNew Yorkhasdied of
   COVID-19, the company confirmed.Theunidentifiedworker reportedly
   received a positive test result on April 11 and hadbeen quarantined.

   The worker's family notified Amazon of the death on Monday.

   "We are deeply saddened by the loss of an associate at our site in
   Staten Island, NY.His family and loved ones are in our thoughts, and we
   are supporting his fellow colleagues,"Amazon spokesperson Lisa
   Levandowski saidin a statement.

   The death comes amidprotestsbythecompany's workersconcerningworkplace
   safety.At least threeemployeesat differentwarehousesacross theU.S.have
   been fired since April.Oneworker,Christian Smalls,who led aprotest
   againstAmazon in March,worked at the Staten Island facility.

   Last week,[1]Tim Bray, former vice presidentof Amazon Web
   Services,leftthe companyafter five years,explaining in a blog
   postthathe quit"in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were
   making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19."

   Amazon responded to Bray's posts stating, "We support every employee's
   right to criticize their employer's working conditions, but that does
   not come with blanket immunity againstany and allinternal policies. We
   terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies."

   Amazon has been under scrutinysince the end of April whenthe Office of
   the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)added five of the
   company'soverseasoperations to its annual blacklist of
   "notoriousmarkets."

References

   1. https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2020/04/29/Leaving-Amazon#p-3

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