- Amazon on Thursday fired several managers at a unionized warehouse in Staten Island, the NYT reported.
- The Amazon Labor Union met with US president Joe Biden last week to discuss anti-union tactics.
- Meanwhile, Amazon workers at another Staten Island warehouse, LDJ5, voted against unionizing last week.
Amazon has fired more than a half dozen senior managers who worked at the warehouse called JFK8 in Staten Island, New York, which successfully unionized in April, the New York Times has reported.
Four anonymous former and current employees told the publication that the senior managers were informed they were being fired by the e-commerce giant on Thursday.
People familiar with the events said it was seen by the fired managers and others at the warehouse as a result of the historic win at JFK8 to form the Amazon Labor Union, the report says. Two people said that managers were informed the reason was down to "organizational change."
Amazon told the New York Times that it had made changes to management after it spent weeks reviewing its "operations and leadership" at JFK8.
"Part of our culture at Amazon is to continually improve, and we believe it's important to take time to review whether or not we're doing the best we could be for our team," Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel told the New York Times.
The news comes less than a week after Amazon workers at another Staten Island warehouse, called LDJ5, voted against unionizing. Approximately 61% of Amazon workers that were eligible to participate cast their vote from April 25 to 29, and a majority rejected the attempts to organize.
After the vote was counted by the National Labour Relations Board, the union said in a tweet: "The election has concluded without the union being recognized at LDJ5—sortation center on Staten Island. The organizing will continue at this facility and beyond. The fight has just begun."
It was highly anticipated that the LDJ5 sorting center in Staten Island would follow in the footsteps of JFK8, which was the first Amazon warehouse in the US to unionize.
Amazon workers who supported the unionization complained of low pay, insufficient health and safety protocols, along with high performance targets.
The Amazon Labor Union attended a Senate Budget Committee hearing and met with US president Joe Biden and secretary of labor Marty Walsh on Thursday to speak about the opposition tactics allegedly facing unions. The committee was reviewing whether it should stop giving federal contracts to companies that violate labor laws.
"Even though we did everything right and won our election, Amazon is allowed to stall, break the law. It feels like these corporations have the upper hand in the process," union organizer Christian Smalls told the committee.
The union also advocated for passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act — a proposed law that would prevent employers from discouraging union membership and stop them from forcing employees to attend employer meetings and sign agreements that waive their right to join a labor union.
Amazon was not immediately available for Insider's request for comment.